03. Jan 2017
Bio-on signs new multi-licence maxi agreement with undisclosed client
Italian PHA producer Bio-on closed 2016 with an announcement that it had signed a new multi-license contract worth 55 million Euro with “a major multinational company and leader in its sector”. Bio-on's new client aims to phase out the use of conventional plastic over the next three years, replacing this with Bio-on’s ago-waste based PHA.
The first license took effect immediately on signing the agreement. A second will become operative in the first half of 2017, concluding the preparatory activities for the launch of the industrial project. All licenses and relative revenues, for a total of 55 million Euro, will be developed continuously over the next 24-36 months. Furthermore, the two companies have signed another two agreements, together worth EUR 1 million, to design and develop new applications for the materials by spring 2017.
The plan envisages the construction of a series of PHAs bioplastic production plants for an overall output of 100,000 tonnes per year. The individual plants will have a potential of between 10,000 and 30,000 tonnes per year and will be built in Europe and Asia according to a three-year schedule, which will meet the needs of Bio-on's multinational client to produce its own PHAs biopolymer. Thanks to this agreement, the company will be able to replace a large part of the conventional plastic now used in its products by Bio-on’s PHA from 2020 on.
"This multi-layered agreement is an important milestone for us," explains Marco Astorri, Bio-on Chairman and CEO, "it comes at the end of a long and complex negotiation process which began in the second quarter of 2016 and is line with the forecasts for 2017 and 2018 laid down in the new industrial plan we presented in November 2016. Signing such a large contract with a prestigious, leading multinational confirms the great value of our technology and represents further affirmation on the market of PHAs bioplastic, which is the only real alternative to the environmental problem of conventional plastics."
Under the signed agreement, the PHA bioplastic produced using the technology licensed out by Bio-on will be made from co-products of the sugar industry and the production of starch and its derivatives. All 100 thousand tonnes of PHA produced annually at the new plants are for the exclusive use of the multinational in question. (KL)
http://www.bio-on.it