Under the agreement, Novozymes will acquire a 10% stake in Beta Renewables and pay about €90m for the equity, marketing fees, other intellectual property rights and milestone payments.
The partners will offer a combination of Novozymes’ Cellic enzymes and Beta Renewables’ Proesa technology to customers seeking to produce biofuels from agricultural residues.
Beta Renewables will unveil a cellulosic ethanol plant in Crescentino, Italy which is expected to produce 50 million liters of ethanol annually from wheat straw, energy crops with a capacity of 76 million liters.
Novozymes expects to benefit up to DKK1bn from 15-25 new cellulosic biofuel facilities that Beta is likely to contract in the next three to five years.
The agreement is expected to be closed by the end of November 2012.
