Viridas cashes in Leed Petroleum stake

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 08:11:00 +0000

Investment group Viridas (LON:VIR) has made £2.87 million by offloading most of its stake in Leed Petroleum (LON:LDP), selling 592,666,667 shares at an average price of 0.48 pence.

It will continue to hold 166,666,667 warrants to subscribe for new Leeds shares at a subscription price of 0.15 pence each.

Viridas chairman Nicholas Lee said: "Given the increase in the valuation of Leed, and the strong interest in the company being shown by a range of investors, Viridas has decided to sell the majority of its holding in order to make funds available for other investment opportunities.

“I continue to believe that Leed represents an exciting investment opportunity and so Viridas has decided to retain both a financial interest in Leed and I will also continue as a director of the company,” he added.

Leed had operated a portfolio of shallow-water oil and gas production assets in the Gulf of Mexico, but it sold these to a private company in May last year for US$16 million in order to satisfy debt. It had started a strategic review at the beginning of the year after reporting a drop in production and dwindling reserves.

In September Leed switched into coal, buying a 17.5-per cent interest in Kyrgyz Republic-based Manas Coal – a coking coal exploration and development company.

The news caused a brief spike in Leed’s share price, but it spent the latter part of the year languishing at or below the 0.010 pence a share mark. Just before Christmas, it began a strong rise which took it to 0.5 pence over the last few days.

Viridas’ latest biomass partnership may take future revenues up to US$1bn

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 13:39:00 +0100

Viridas (LON:VIR) is set to supply an unnamed UK energy generator with 240,000tpa (tonnes per annum) of sustainable biomass for electricity generation. The company said that it now has potential revenues worth up to US$1bn over a ten year period.

The parties have signed a Strategic Development and Partnership agreement, which Viridas expects to lead to a sustainable biomass offtake deal. The company already has a major offtake agreement in place with INEOS – one of the world’s largest chemical and petroleum distillers - to supply 450,000 barrels of biooil.

“The future signing of a biomass offtake agreement with an important major electricity generator for the annual purchase of 240,000 tonnes of biomass, coupled with the bio-oil agreement already in place ... will give Viridas gross revenue potential in the region of US$1 billion over the next ten years,” Viridas Chairman Stanley Wootliff commented.

"Having two very credible development partners ... will enable us to crystallize our development programme and establish Viridas as a leading producer of truly sustainable, renewable dedicated bio-fuels,” he added.

In Brazil, Viridas is developing a jatropha curcas plantation - a dedicated energy crop with average 30% oil content of over 30%, which can be processed into biofuel - which is expected to begin commercial production in 2013. The company notes that it is implementing an owner/operator plantation model, which has proven successful for other listed plantation companies.

Jatropha curcas crops can be used to produce biomass and biooil for the production of bio-diesel and bio-kerosene. The company will process the biomass, from the Jatropha curcas seeds, into crushed ‘seed-cake’, in a facility in the UK.

Proactiveinvestors United Kingdom

Viridas cashes in Leed Petroleum stake

Viridas’ latest biomass partnership may take future revenues up to US$1bn