Since its construction, Bioenergy has been surrounded by controversy. Its millionaire cost overruns took Ecopetrol to international courts and opened the door to tax liability investigations and rulings against executives and managers who were part of the company.
It seemed that the company had no future and in June 2020 – in the midst of the covid pandemic – its liquidation was surely set. To carry out this process, the then Superintendent of Companies, Juan Pablo Liévano, called Ruben Dario Lizarraldewho only asked to know the state of the company to accept this responsibility.
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When he did, he knew immediately that there was a chance for Bioenergy to keep going, even though the crops weren’t in the best condition and the financial statements were not very clearalthough the industrial plant did remain in very good condition.
«I agree to be a liquidator, but first I am going to try to save the company»was the response of Lizarralde (current manager of Bioenergy) to the Superintendent, who gave his endorsement as long as an action plan was presented that would allow the company to be saved without causing patrimonial damage to creditors.
«Knowing the company and having been Minister of Agriculture, morally I did not feel capable of liquidating the company. I felt the obligation to try to save her«, said.
Knowing the company and having been Minister of Agriculture, morally I did not feel capable of liquidating the company. I felt the obligation to try to save her
With the go-ahead, Lizarralde launched his plan to reactivate the company and received the support of suppliers and creditors such as Itaú, Banco de Bogotá and Bancolombia.
This last bank is also offered based on cultivated sugar cane, while Primax made advance purchases of ethanol which allowed cash flow.
With these resources, the agricultural machinery began to be reactivated, the land was prepared to start a new harvest and the industrial plant was set up. But this was still not enough.
«Our aspiration was for someone to appear who would buy the debts, to have a new owner who inject capital and be able to move the company forward«says the manager.
So it was. Having had the best harvest resulted in great interest from investors from Central America, Europe and the United States, but finally the company was in the hands of the Colombian Green Energy Inversiones on March 9, 2022.
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New owners saved Bioenergy from liquidation and they promised to pay the more than 500,000 million pesos that are owed to banks, suppliers and workers, even if their own resources were not enough.
Bioenergy SAS ended and was replaced by Agrícola de Los Llanos, which welcomed the nearly 750 workers that are in Puerto López and Puerto Gaitán, in Meta. Meanwhile, Bioenergy Zona Franca –which has the industrial plant– entered a reorganization process that will take four more years.
At the moment the company is in a new harvest, thanks to the investments of more than 100,000 million pesos made by the new partners. «What we see is that this company, which produces ethanol and generates energy, has an extremely important futurenot only for the region but also for the country”, highlights Lizarralde.
Of course the company has possibilities, we are taking it forward and we are going to take it to produce second and third generation ethanol
The company has been operating normally for almost a year; however, it still takes 24 more months to reach a point that allows it, without new investments, to get ahead.
From the beginning, investors are clear that they must inject money in order to have enough sugarcane so that ethanol production can generate profits.
Although it is currently generating good income, it is not what is required to carry Bioenergy forward on its own. In the next two years an additional 200,000 million pesos are required to maintain the plant and renovate more than 8,000 hectares. Today there is only 50 percent of the crop and it must reach 100 percent, «at this time it will be possible to have a balanced, autonomous company that generates profits for shareholders.»
But if the Bioenergy business had a future, what went wrong when it was in the hands of Ecopetrol? Lizarralde assures that the problems were from its construction and at the beginning of the productive activity, although he prefers not to look to the past but to focus on the present and how to take advantage of the opportunities to continue with the recovery of the company.
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«Of course the company has possibilities, we are taking it forward and we are going to take it to produce second and third generation ethanol,» he adds.
Although the current focus is to stabilize the company and produce some 65 million liters of ethanol this year, Lizarralde also visualizes the future and hopes that in the next three years it can reach more than 100 million liters, in addition to produce ethanol for aircraft.
Also, increase the mixture with gasoline beyond the 10 percent that the regulation establishes. would open the door to make more investments in Bioenergyproduce more sugar cane and take care of the environment.
But for this it is essential to have financing at rates that make it possible to leverage faster growthsince the increase in the interest rate of the Bank of the Republic and the skyrocketing of the dollar slows down the entry of new resources.
