Thousand Oaks, California
September 26, 2007
Energy crop company
Ceres, Inc. announced today
that it has raised $75 million through a private offering of
convertible preferred stock. The late-stage financing round was
led by Warburg Pincus,
the global private equity firm, which has extensive experience
and a long track record of investing in energy, alternative
energy and renewables.
A seed and traits developer, Ceres plans to use the proceeds for
research and product development activities in several dedicated
energy crops, which are bred to maximize yields of plant biomass
- the energy-rich source of a new generation of biofuels. The
funds will also be used for capital expenditures and general
corporate purposes.
Ceres President and CEO Richard Hamilton welcomed Warburg
Pincus' vote of confidence. "Coming from one of the energy
sector's top private equity firms, this late-stage investment is
a key validation of our growth plans. We now have the resources
we need to expand the scale of our commercialization efforts,
and the independence to broadly collaborate with downstream
players in the transportation fuel industry."
Mr. Hamilton noted that the genomics-based tools and biotech
traits that Ceres has developed for corn and other row crops can
be fully leveraged in dedicated energy crops. The company also
plans to continue the discovery and licensing of its traits to
other businesses outside of energy crops.
Chansoo Joung, a Warburg Pincus Managing Director, said that the
cellulosic biofuels industry shows promise of significant growth
and is likely to become a material part of the transportation
fuel market in the next decade. "We believe that Ceres is
well-positioned to succeed as a leading supplier to energy crop
growers and cellulosic biorefineries. The company has a strong
track record in research and development and an intellectual
property position that has been validated by industry-leading
licensing agreements," commented Mr. Joung.
Within its energy crop business segment, Ceres' development
efforts cover switchgrass, sorghum, miscanthus, energycane and
woody species. One of its first seed products, a high-yielding
switchgrass cultivar, is currently scheduled for commercial
launch in 2009. The company's biotech pipeline includes traits
that can improve the economics of biofuel production as well as
the environmental benefits of energy crops, including drought
tolerance and nitrogen-use efficiency.
Morgan Stanley acted as an advisor to Ceres in the transaction.
Other aspects of the offering and its participants were not
disclosed.
Ceres, Inc.is a leading developer of high-yielding energy
crops that can be planted as feedstocks for cellulosic ethanol
production. Founded as a plant genomics company, Ceres holds one
of the world's largest proprietary collections of fully
sequenced plant genes. Ceres headquarters are located in
Thousand Oaks, California.
Warburg Pincus has been a leading private equity investor since
1971. The firm has more than $20 billion under management and
invests globally and at all stages of a company's life cycle
across a range of sectors including energy, technology, media
and telecommunications, financial services, healthcare and life
sciences, retail, consumer and industrial and real estate. Since
the late 1980s, the firm has invested more than $2.4 billion in
companies involved in oil and gas exploration and production,
energy and power projects and oilfield and other services. For
more than two decades, Warburg Pincus has been the lead investor
in a multitude of successful public and private energy
companies, including Newfield Exploration Co. (NYSE: NFX),
Petrotec Biodiesel (FWB: PT8), Spinnaker Exploration, Inc.
(NYSE: SKE, since acquired by Norsk Hydro ASA), Encore
Acquisition Co. (NYSE: EAC), Bill Barrett Corp. (NYSE: BBG), MEG
Energy Corp., ElectroMagnetic GeoServices (OSE: EMGS) and Kosmos
Energy LLC. For more information, please visit
www.warburgpincus.com.
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