Nov 7, 2011 - Brazilian sugar and ethanol producer Infinity Bioenergy (LON:IBI) is now preparing a corporate restructuring and a name change, president Douglas Oliveira was quoted as saying by local news agency Agencia Estado on Saturday.
Infinity Bioenergy, which was bought by Brazilian diversified holding company Grupo Bertin in March 2010, plans to exit bankruptcy-court protection by the end of the year and hopes to get access to government credits that were not available during the judicial recovery period. After that, Infinity will change its name, which implies a negative image due to the administrative problems it faced in the past.
Furthermore, Infinity will increase its sugar output. One year ago, Infinity's plants produced 72% of ethanol and 28% of sugar and in the ongoing crop year the sugar output accounts for 51%, while ethanol for 28%. Sugar output will be boosted even more in future, Oliveira added.
Investments in co-generation energy projects are not Infinity's priority at the moment, due to the low prices for the produced energy, the president explained adding that it is more feasible to sell the sugar cane bagasse to co-generation plants at the moment.
Now, Infinity has six plants but one of them, Usina Paraiso in southeastern Minas Gerais state, will be put on sale. With the sale of Paraiso, Infinity will focus its investments of the other five plants. Its plant in central-western Mato Grosso do Sul state has installed capacity to process 3.2 million tonnes of cane. The other four plants located in a cluster between the states of Minas Gerais, Espirito Santo and Bahia, have a combined installed crushing capacity of 5.6 million tonnes.
Now, the company is preparing to release its first figures since 2008. In the 2011/12 crop year, Infinity is seen to register net sales of BRL 612 million (USD 349.4m/EUR 255m) and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of BRL 108 million.
Infinity's debts currently stand at BRL 482 million, Oliveira added.
(BRL 1 = USD 0.571/EUR 0.417)
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