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Market: NASDAQ TSX
Sector: Agribusiness
EPIC: STKL
Latest Price: 5.09  (0.79% Ascending)
52-week High: 7.95
52-week Low: 4.16
Market Cap: 334.37M
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SunOpta
www.sunopta.com

SunOpta has three business units: the SunOpta Food Group, which specializes in sourcing, processing and distribution of natural and organic food products; Opta Minerals (TSX:OPM) (66.5% owned by SunOpta), a producer, distributor, and recycler of environmentally friendly industrial materials; and SunOpta BioProcess Inc. which engineers and markets proprietary steam explosion technology systems for the bio-fuel, pulp and food processing industries.

Full SunOpta profile here
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SunOpta sells SunOpta BioProcess to Mascoma for $51m

1st Sep 2010, 1:21 pm
SunOpta sells SunOpta BioProcess to Mascoma for $51m

SunOpta (Nasdaq:STKL) (TSX:SOY), a global company focused on natural, organic and specialty foods and natural health products, has sold plant biomass processing business SunOpta BioProcess (SBI) to biofuels company Mascoma for approximately $51 million in Mascoma shares.

Under the terms of the deal, Mascoma will give a combination of preferred and common shares in its company and as a result, the newco will be approximately 73% owned by existing Mascoma shareholders and around 18% by SunOpta, the balance of which will be held by other SBI shareholders.

"We share a common vision of solving one of the most important energy problems in the world: enabling a sustainable transportation fuel sector by converting cellulosic biomass to fuel in a low-cost, sustainable way," said CEO of Mascoma Bill Brady.

The combination is expected to bring together SBI's fiber preparation and pretreatment technology (known as the upstream component of cellulosic ethanol production) with Mascoma's consolidated bioprocessing (CBP) technology, and allow the new entity to convert non-food cellulose (wood chips, energy crops and organic solid waste) into ethanol and transportation fuels.

In addition to these technical synergies, the combined company will have operational presence in both the United States and Canada, as well as a strong intellectual property position in the cellulosic biofuels sector, it said.

Both SBI and Mascoma have development partners in the U.S., Canada, China, Brazil and South Africa, all of which are expected to benefit from the combination.

In early 2010, SBI announced a major contract to supply its fiber preparation and pretreatment technology to one of the largest operators in the new energy sector in China.

Mascoma, through its affiliate Frontier Renewable Resources, is currently developing a commercial scale production facility in Kinross, Michigan. The new facility will also incorporate technologies developed by SBI from its pilot operations in Waterdown, Ontario and Brampton, Ontario.

Chairman of SunOpta and former chairman of SBI Jeremy Kendall will join Mascoma's board of directors.

SunOpta BioProcess provides a wide range of research, development, engineering and process installation services, and holds patents and patent applications on its proprietary fiber preparation, pretreatment and downstream processes. Its offices are located in Brampton, Ontario with pilot facilities at this location as well as a second location in Waterdown, Ontario.

Mascoma is focused on developing environmentally sustainable, low cost, low carbon biofuels from cellulosic biomass. The company's consolidated bioprocessing method converts non-food biomass feedstocks into cellulosic ethanol through the use of a proprietary process that eliminates the need for costly enzymes and additives. The company's corporate office and R&D laboratories are based in Lebanon, New Hampshire.

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