Vestjyllands Andel has announced that its subsidiary Danish Bio Commodities Invest (DBC Invest) has acquired a "significant ownership interest" in Sindal Biogas, a biogas plant in Hjørring in North Jutland. The investment is the second biogas plant investment in Denmark by the recently formed company.
Danish Bio Commodities (DBC), is a recently formed company jointly set-up in Jutland by Vestjyllands Andel, Jysk Energi, and Langfristet Erhvervsfinansiering, to provide advice to Danish farm-based biogas plants and assist in the certification of the plants and trade of green gas certificates. Earlier this month, DBC Invest, the investment arm of DBC, revealed that it made its first investment by taking a majority position in Grauballegaard Biogas.
Part of the agricultural group Kirketerp Agro (K/AGRO), Sindal Biogas was first commissioned in 2017 and is undergoing a major expansion that will be completed during 2020. DBC Invest expects that current and future investments in the plant will round a triple-digit DKK million amount.
We have high expectations for the upcoming collaboration with Sindal Biogas, which is an exciting player on the Danish biogas scene. With the ongoing expansion, the annual biogas capacity is brought up to approximately 20 million Nm3, which only helps to strengthen the great development potential that Sindal Biogas possesses. We are very much looking forward to being a part of that development, says Rune Ledgaard Sørensen, Director of Danish Bio Commodities and DBC Invest.
Owned by Karen Kirketerp and Morten Glenthøj. K/AGRO been exploring the possibilities for a partnership for Sindal Biogas for quite some time, and when DBC Invest showed interest, an agreement was quickly reached.
DBC has an ambitious and professional approach to the opportunities and development potentials that the biogas industry is currently experiencing. At the same time, the company has a strong foothold in agriculture and the spirit of cooperatives. They understand the importance of agriculture co-determining and co-owning this development. This has been decisive for us in relation to choosing DBC as a partner in the industry, said Morten Glenthøj, co-owner of K/AGRO
Great synergy opportunities
According to Glenthøj, who will continue as interim Director of Sindal Biogas until the position is appointed, having DCB as a partner will help Sindal Biogas achieve some of its objectives.
We believe that the partnership will provide added value in the short term, where together we can achieve our goals faster. In the long run, we believe it is an advantage to have a strong partner with great insight into the industry. This is especially true when new technologies such as grass protein and Power2X need to be rolled out, explained Morten Glenthøj.
The above technologies are among the focus points at Vestjyllands Andel and Jysk Energi, respectively. The two cooperatives also see good development opportunities in the collaboration with Sindal Biogas.
The investment in Sindal Biogas creates fertile ground for some exciting synergies, which will help to further contribute to agriculture’s green transformation. Among other things. The forthcoming capacity expansion provides good opportunities for establishing a plant for processing grass protein in connection with the biogas plant, which fits in well with Vestjyllands Andel’s overall development and sustainability strategy, said Steen Bitsch, Director of Vestjyllands Andel.
Niels Brøndsted, CFO of Jysk Energi, is also enthusiastic about the investment in Sindal Biogas.
We are pleased that another Danish biogas producer has chosen DBC Invest as a future partner. From Jysk Energi’s perspective, the collaboration with Sindal Biogas also opens up the possibility of participating in development projects such as the Power2X technology for the production of liquefied gas for ships and ferries in the North Jutland area, concluded Niels Brøndsted.
