Verbio supervisors okay Maerka acquisition, management changes

(ADPnews) - Oct 28, 2010 - The supervisory board of German biofuel producer Verbio Vereinigte BioEnergie AG (ETR:VBK) yesterday approved the acquisition of local crops provider Maerka GmbH, along with several changes in Verbio's management board.

At end-September, Verbio signed a contract to acquire 89.35% of Maerka. The firm agreed to pay EUR 24.57 million (USD 34m) for the acquisition, including cash and the transfer of around 1.5 million own shares. The execution of the deal was subject to the approvals of Verbio's supervisory board and of antitrust authorities, both of which are now in place.

Maerka provides crop, oil seeds, legumes and straw. Owning a stake in the firm, Verbio will have direct access to in-house raw material supply, needed for green-fuel production.

In addition, the supervisory board approved the following changes in the company's management: from November 1, 2010, Bernd Sauter will join Verbio's management board with responsibility for the area of purchasing and logistics. The chief technical officer and co-founder of Verbio, Georg Pollert, will resign in May 2011. On his recommendation, on May 19, 2011, Theodor Niesmann will become member of the management board for the biodiesel segment and Oliver Luedtke will join the management board to be responsible for the bioethanol/biogas segment. Both these appointments are for a period of three years.

(EUR 1.0 = USD 1.384)

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