Biox looks set to raise $50 million in IPO

On a day where the world was thinking about debt defaults in the oil-rich United Arab Emirates, along comes news that Wellington Financial Fund III portfolio co. BIOX Corp., a biodiesel producer, is close to raising up to $50 million in an initial public offering on the TSXV:

JJR IV Acquisition Inc. has entered into a letter of intent dated November 26, 2009 with BIOX Corporation to complete a going public transaction which will result in a reverse take over of JJR IV, a capital pool company listed on the TSX Venture Exchange. In conjunction with the transaction, BIOX intends to complete a private placement of up to $50 million of subscription receipts exercisable into shares of JJR IV upon completion of the Qualifying Transaction.

BIOX is a renewable energy company that designed, built, owns and operates a 60 million litre per annum biodiesel production facility in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. BIOX has an innovative, proprietary and patented production process that is significantly faster and achieves higher yields than competing methods of biodiesel production, while utilizing the widest variety of feedstocks – from pure seed oils to animal fats to recovered vegetable oils with no change to the production process.

We’ll keep the champagne on ice until the deal formally closes, but this appears to be great news for Canada’s renewable fuels industry, as well as our institutional syndicate partners Birch Hill Equity Partners and VentureLink Funds, both of whom have had a huge positive impact on the success to date.

The federal government via Natural Resources Canada and SDTC also played a positive role in Biox’s operating success. The IP was spun out of U of T a few years ago, making Biox one of the rare recent examples of successful on-campus R&D commercialization.

Biox CEO Tim Haig and CFO Chris Clinning are both tireless and dedicated professionals, which seems to be more than just a modest requirement in this entrepreneurial age.

Fingers crossed as the finish line approaches; the next phase of the finish line, that is. Once Biox is a public co., being a public company executive team is a whole new rat race.

MRM