Plantation Energy secures $60m deal

Plantation Energy Australia has secured a $60 million, three-year deal with a Geneva-headquartered energy trading company for the supply of wood pellets.

The agreement comes weeks after the Perth company stitched up a $70 million, three-year supply deal with a Belgian-based power company Electrabel NV.

The announcement is below:

Plantation Energy Australia Pty Ltd ("Plantation Energy"), Australia's largest manufacturer and exporter of wood pellets, announced today the signing of a three-year AUD 60 million supply agreement with Essent Trading, an international asset-backed merchant energy trading company based in Switzerland. Plantation Energy is backed by leading US-based global private equity firm Denham Capital, which in October 2008 announced an equity investment of up to US$ 80 million in the company.

The agreement between Plantation Energy and Essent Trading comes only days after the company announced its first export deal, with Electrabel NV, a subsidiary of GdF-Suez, Europe's largest power company. Plantation Energy manufacture and export clean renewable energy in the form of wood pellets made from non-commercial plantation forest residues. Initial exports will be shipped from Albany, Western Australia, where the first of several planned pellet manufacturing facilities is already in operation.

"It is very timely as the commissioning stage of the Albany plant is now complete", said Jarrod Waring, Business Development Manager of Plantation Energy. "We are delighted in reaching such an agreement with Essent Trading as it underpins the future development of the plant and allows Plantation Energy to move forward with great confidence."

"Essent Trading is delighted with the import of Australian wood pellets to Europe, which is giving us geographical diversification in our current bio fuel portfolio," said Martin de Wolff of Essent Trading. "The wood pellets from Australia are from sustainable resources and are going to be used in our power plants for the production of 'Green Electricity', thus reducing carbon emissions."

Wood pellets are used extensively in Europe, where they are burned with coal in coal-fired power stations. Demand for pellets exceeded 8 million tonnes in 2008 and is expected to top 16 million tonnes by 2014.

About Plantation Energy Australia Pty Ltd

Plantation Energy is incorporated in Western Australia with offices in Melbourne and Perth and is funded by Denham Capital, a leading energy-focused global private equity firm. The company has an experienced executive team with current operations centered in Albany, Western Australia and further capacity under development in the Green Triangle of Victoria and South Australia. The company's pellet manufacturing business builds on and complements Australia's large, well-established, plantation timber industry bringing economic benefit and employment to regional Australia.

About Essent Trading

Essent Trading, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, is a prestigious asset-backed merchant energy trading business with its roots in the Netherlands. Essent Trading is recognised as a market leader in energy trading in Europe and has been consistently voted a top-tier trading house by Energy Risk Magazine since 2004. Our parent company, Essent N.V. is the largest energy company in the Netherlands with approximately 11,000 employees, more than 5500 MW of diverse generation portfolio and over 2.6 million customers across the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. Essent is ranked among Europe's leading companies in renewable and sustainable energy generation.