BioAmber/CJ CheilJedang tie up to produce bio-succinic acid in China

Canadian renewable materials company BioAmber Inc. has signed a non-binding letter of intent with South Korea-based bioscience company CJ CheilJedang Corporation to establish a joint venture in China to produce up to 36,000 tonnes/year of bio-succinic acid and commercialise the output in Asia by 2018.

The goal is to competitively produce bio-succinic acid in China and quickly penetrate the world's largest succinic acid market. This can be achieved rapidly, cost effectively and with limited capital investment by retrofitting an existing CJCJ fermentation facility with BioAmber's succinic acid technology, says the firms. CJCJ would incur all capital costs required to retrofit their fermentation facility, including the capital needed during plant commissioning and start-up, and production would begin in Q1 2018. If market demand were to subsequently exceed production capacity, the joint venture could expand production through debottlenecking and/or additional investment. The partners would also have a mutual right-of-first-refusal to retrofit additional CJCJ fermentation facilities globally.

CJCJ would own 65% of the joint venture and BioAmber would own 35%. The jv will pay BioAmber a technology royalty for having access to BioAmber's proven bio-succinic acid technology, and CJCJ a tolling fee for producing bio-succinic acid on behalf of the jv. Both partners would be entitled to a share of the profits equal to their respective equity ownership positions.

The proposed joint venture is subject to certain conditions, including technical and commercial due diligence, with the definitive agreements expected to be signed by July 2017. As part of the letter of intent, BioAmber will be selling CJCJ bio-succinic acid manufactured at its Sarnia, Ontario plant, so that CJCJ can undertake market development in China and South Korea in the first half of 2017.

"While we remain focused on ramping up our Sarnia plant and building a second plant in North America, this jv is an opportunity for BioAmber to accelerate the deployment of its bio-succinic acid technology on a global scale without capital investment," stated Jean-Francois Huc, BioAmber's CEO. "This joint venture would allow us to quickly penetrate the Chinese and broader Asian market and accelerate cash flow and earnings for our shareholders. It would also serve as a blueprint for the build-out of additional bio-succinic acid production with very limited capital investment."

Fabrice Orecchioni, BioAmber's COO, added: "CJCJ has visited our Sarnia facility and we have visited their intended plant in China. Both partners are confident that the China plant can be reconfigured to quickly produce bio-succinic acid, for a fraction of what it cost us to build our Sarnia facility."

"This jv is an opportunity for CJCJ to leverage BioAmber's unique, low pH yeast technology and utilize our existing fermentation assets more effectively in order to competitively supply the growing market for bio-succinic acid in Asia," added Dr. Hang Duk Roh, Head of CJ CheilJedang BIO.

In August this year, CJCJ also bought for US$10 million US bioplastics maker Metabolix’s PHA biopolymer intellectual property and certain laboratory equipment http://plasticsandrubberasia.com/aug2016/materials10.html

A subsidiary of the CJ Group, CJCJ is a global leader in the area of industrial biotechnology, with innovations in fermentation and purification technologies. CJCJ is also a leading producer of fermentation-based products such as feed amino acids, monosodium glutamate and nucleotides, with global manufacturing and business operations in six continents. CJCJ BIO is a division of CJ CheilJedang and operates world-scale fermentation facilities in the US, China, Indonesia, Malaysia and Brazil.

(PRA)