Limited Biofuels M&A Activity in 2019, Stage Set for Potentially Busy 2020

February 18, 2020 |

By Bruce Comer, Founder and Managing Director, Ocean Park

Special to The Digest

Slowdown in North American biofuels Mergers and Acquisitions as thin margins and policy uncertainty hung over industry.

Biofuels Merger and Acquisition (M&A) activity in North America was subdued in 2019. Only four operating biodiesel, ethanol and advanced biofuels plants were sold during the year. These four acquired plants were relatively small with a combined capacity of only 133 Million Gallons Per Year. No large-scale, operating biofuels plants changed hands – which is rare for the biofuels M&A market.

The rest of Biofuels M&A activity in 2019 generally involved sub-scale, idled or non-operating plants, along with technology assets. Ocean Park tracked four deals for non-operating ethanol and biodiesel plants that had a combined capacity of 193 MGPY. There were other salvage deals that were not included in the analysis.  In advanced biofuels, two plants traded along with three deals for technology assets.

Several factors slowed biofuels M&A in 2019 – an oversupplied, low margin environment, policy uncertainty, limited capital availability and an absence of active buyers. Ocean Park tracked several broken sales processes.

First, let’s get started with Ethanol M&A.

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