Carbios, Limagrain Céréales Ingrédients and the SPI “Industrial Projects Company” investment fund run by Bpifrance are cooperating to create a joint venture Carbiolice
Carbios, Limagrain Céréales Ingrédients and the SPI “Industrial Projects Company” investment fund run by Bpifrance are cooperating to create a joint venture Carbiolice for the production and commercialisation of granules for bio-sourced and biodegradable plastic film
From 1 January 2017 onwards, via its Energy Transition and Green Growth Law, France will enforce the use of bio-sourced and biodegradable plastics for fruit & vegetable bags (35,000 tons per year) and other films. The joint venture Carbiolice shall address this challenge in the long term by continuing to develop biolice and industrialising technological innovation licenced by Carbios.
Carbiolice is the product of a partnership between Carbios’ innovative technology and Limagrain Céréales Ingrédients’ technical, industrial and commercial expertise acquired over more than 15 years in the bioplastics sector. Carbios is providing major innovation with its enzymatic technology which makes plastics biodegradable. Limagrain Céréales Ingrédients is providing its expertise and existing production capacity for bioplastic granules, known under the brand name biolice. The SPI “Industrial Projects Company” investment fund, financed by the PIA Future Investments Programme and run by Bpifrance, will round off the financial partnership to support the expansion of industrial production.
The future company shall take over Limagrain Céréales Ingrédients’ bioplastics activity and progressively integrate the technological innovations licenced by Carbios over time. The granules will be used to produce bio-sourced and biodegradable plastic films for a variety of applications including green waste collection bags, mulch films, fruit & vegetable bags, industrial films and even mailing films. Theses biodegradable plastics will meet the increasingly stringent requirements defined by France’s energy transition law.
The future company will, in the long term, create 50 direct jobs and support one of the first green chemistry technologies currently under development and deployed on an industrial scale in France.
The contributions from industrial assets and licences result in a project total of €29.5 million, with the cash element to be released in three phases over four years. The SPI fund will invest €11 million over this period to ultimately reach a 37% shareholding in Carbiolice. These investments will help to ensure activity growth by progressively acquiring additional industrial capacity. They will also help to support the industrial and commercial development of the new plastic materials derived from Carbios technology.
Chief Executive Officer of Carbios, Jean-Claude Lumaret: “Carbiolice is a continuation of the Thanaplast™ project supported by Bpifrance, led by Carbios and with Limagrain Céréales Ingrédients as one of the industrial partners. We are very pleased to see the creation of this industrial partnership with Limagrain Céréales Ingrédients and Bpifrance; it confirms their confidence in Carbios’ innovation and expertise. For Carbios, this is the first tangible industrial project stemming from the R&D work underway since 2011 with all partners involved in Thanaplast™. The creation of this new Company shows that a young innovative company like Carbios can – with the right industrial, academic and financial partners – make an innovation in Green Chemistry an actual industrial reality in less than five years, helping to create value, generate employment and meet the environmental goals stated at COP21.”
Magali Joessel, Director of the SPI fund at Bpifrance: “As the fourth investment made by the SPI fund, Carbiolice fully meets the fund’s goals by supporting the industrialisation of new job-creating activities. The Green Chemistry sector, with its high-quality innovations, is proving to be a very promising sector for building new and strong industrial positioning. We are pleased to have contributed to this value-creating partnership in the green industry between Carbios, a young, innovative company and Limagrain Céréales Ingrédients, one of the leading processors of cereals.”
Director of Limagrain Céréales Ingrédients, Emmanuel Goujon: “After 15 years of developing biolice bioplastics, the creation of the joint company Carbiolice with new partners is an opportunity to promote our acquired expertise and meet the challenges of growth in these markets in France and internationally. I am delighted that this joint venture shall open up new horizons founded on the synergy between our teams.”
About Carbios
Carbios is a young, innovative green chemistry company whose mission is to find biological solutions to the new environmental and sustainable development issues faced by industrial businesses today. Carbios acquired the rights to research that was conducted over a number of years by various public and private sector laboratories. By leveraging the biological properties of catalysts (enzymes), it has used this research as the foundation for developing innovative industrial bioprocesses that optimise the technical, economic and environmental performance of polymers (thermoplastic materials and synthetic or food-based fibres). Initially, Carbios chose to focus its efforts on the strategic application sector of plastics. Carbios’ growth strategy is based on an economic business model of industrial value creation that targets attractive markets, develops innovative and competitive bioprocesses and licenses them to major industrial stakeholders of these markets for development and commercialisation. Carbios benefits from the financial support of the leading European venture capital firm Truffle Capital. CARBIOS was founded in 2011 and has been managed, since its inception, by the Holding Incubatrice Chimie Verte fund. CARBIOS was granted the label “Young Innovative Company” by Bpifrance (former OSEO) and is eligible for investments by Private Equity Mutual Funds (FCPIs).
For more information, please visit: www.carbios.oo
Carbios is eligible for PEA-PME, a government programme allowing French residents investing in SMEs to benefit from income tax rebates
About Limagrain Céréales Ingrédients
Limagrain Céréales Ingrédients (LCI) is a subsidiary of LIMAGRAIN, an international agricultural cooperative, specialising in field seeds, vegetable seeds and cereal products. As a subsidiary of LIMAGRAIN, LCI has a unique positioning and perfect understanding of cereals and their interactions with industrial processes. LCI develops and manufactures authentic and functional cereal ingredients for manufacturers in the food industry and bioplastics.
Limagrain Céréales Ingrédients generates a turnover of €120 million and processes more than 200,000 tonnes of cereals every year. Its six industrial sites are close to supply basins and enable the complete traceability of ranges of corn flake base, semolina, corn flour, pellets, functional flours, improvers and bioplastic granules.
Always connected to our clients’ markets, researchers and R&D teams manage and coordinate numerous programmes to select and improve the wheat and corn varieties that constitute our raw materials.
Limagrain Céréales Ingrédients develops its expertise in five main markets: snacks, breakfast cereals, industrial and artisanal bread-making, ready meals and non-food applications (mainly bioplastics).
About the SPI Industrial Projects Company fund
Managed by Bpifrance on behalf of the French State as part of the PIA Future Investments Programme, the purpose of this fund is to enable industrial projects with the best prospects for business and employment in industrial sectors to find support for their development.
The fund acts as a prudent equity investor in project companies with industrialisation projects selected for their growth potential, the industry’s current position and their contribution to environmental and energy transition. It therefore constitutes one of the financial levers of the ‘New Industrial France’.
About Bpifrance
Bpifrance, a subsidiary of Caisse des Dépôts and the French State, is a trusted partner of entrepreneurs which provides companies with credit, collateral and equity financing support from start up through to stock exchange listing. Bpifrance also provides guidance services and enhanced support for innovation, external growth and export, in partnership with Business France and Coface.
Bpifrance offers companies a continuum of financing for each key stage of their development and an offer adapted to specific regional features.
With 42 regional offices (90% of decisions are made regionally), Bpifrance offers entrepreneurs a tool for economic competitiveness. Bpifrance works in support of the public policies pursued nationally and regionally by the French government, to meet three objectives:
support the growth of businesses;- prepare for future competitiveness;
- contribute to the development of a favourable ecosystem for entrepreneurship.
With Bpifrance, companies have a strong and effective local contact to meet all their financial, innovation and investment needs.
For more information, please visit: www.bpifrance.fr – http://investissementsdavenir.bpifrance.fr/ – Twitter: @bpifrance
About the PIA Future Investments Programme
The PIA Future Investments Programme has been endowed with a total of 47 billion euros. Since 2010, more than 36 billion euros of this total have been invested in six major strategic areas for France and its future:
- Higher education and training
- Research and implementation
- Industrial modernisation
- Sustainable development
- The digital economy
| Press contacts: | ||||
| Bpifrance
Anne-Sophie de Faucigny Tel.: +33 (0)6 46 01 52 86 as.defaucigny@bpifrance.fr |
Carbios
Benjamin Audebert Tel.: +33 (0)6 42 01 14 92
Alize RP Tel.: +33 (0) 6 64 18 99 59 |
Limagrain Céréales Ingrédients
Walter Lopez Tel.: +33 (0)6 08 87 54 22 Walter.lopez@limagrain.com |
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