David Braun presented on mergers and acquisitions at Oleofuels 2015 in Frankfurt, Germany.
As overall energy demand increases, biofuels continue to play an important role in environmental sustainability. Global biofuel production reached 115 billion liters in 2013 and is expected to grow to 139 billion by 2020.
Despite this increase, the dynamics of the industry are changing. The geography of biofuels policy support is shifting. While policy support wanes in the US, European Union and Brazil, support in non-OECD markets and Southeast Asia is on the rise. The US, EU and Brazil still remain the top producers of biofuels, but production is expected to plateau by 2020, largely caused by uncertainty over policy, which is a critical driver of growth.
In the European Union, the Renewable Energy Directive requires that 20% of total energy needs in the EU come from renewable energy by 2020. However, no new targets for renewable energy have been set for 2020 and beyond, generating confusion in the industry. In the US, announcing new targets for the Renewable Fuel Standard were delayed in 2014. The EPA just recently released proposed targets on June 1, 2015.
In the midst of these changes, companies must discover new ways of pursuing growth. Capstone CEO David Braun presented “Strategic Alliance, Joint Venture and M&A – the Route to Success?” at Oleofuels 2015 in Frankfurt, Germany on June 11, 2015. He discussed how businesses and industry players can use acquisitions to navigate through the industry changes and pursue new options for growth.
Oleofuels 2015 brought together the leading executives and experts from across the entire value chain of the biofuel industry. In addition to mergers and acquisitions, conference topics included the EU biofuel regulations, national policy implementation, feedstock costs, availability and sustainability, emerging and new potential feedstocks, opportunities for advanced biodiesel growth, the biojet and automotive biofuels industry.
