The story of Avocet's bankrupt Finnish partner

by DOUG COLLIE

A website which is still promoting the 'groundbreaking' technological activities of Avocet Infinite PLC even though the Borders company had liquidators appointed last month includes details of a collaborative agreement with a pioneering Finland-based biogas business.

However, those who happen to read about the intention of Avocet and BioGTS Ltd. to pool their resources "on a number of projects worldwide" may be unaware that the Finnish half of the partnership has been officially bankrupt since November 2018. It reported debts of more than 11 million Euros in June of that year.

Creditors of Avocet Infinite, which changed its name to Omega Infinite last year have been invited to submit their proof of debt to joint liquidators at the Sheffield office of insolvency specialists Begbies Traynor. The notice concerning the appointment says Ashleigh Fletcher and Joanne Hammond were appointed by the 'Secretary of State'.

As reported previously in these columns, Orrdone Farms, a subsidiary of Omega Infinite, entered administration in January with debts said to exceed £3.5 million. The companies claimed they were developing "revolutionary" systems for use in agricultural and food production, and Avocet/Omega had assembled a list of 650 shareholders.

The avocetinfiniteplc.com website continues - as of today - to function with separate sections covering each of the trading activities.

Pages dealing with anaerobic digestion have the details of Avocet's links to BioGTS, a biogas and biodiesel plant manufacturer operating in Jyväskylä, Finland.

According to the website blurb : "BioGTS are an innovative Finnish Biogas company with patented biogas and biodiesel technologies designed for the treatment of organic biodegradable waste from municipalities, industries and agriculture. Their ground-breaking technologies enable materials to be processed which would be difficult to treat in traditional biogas processes.

"BioGTS biodiesel and biogas plants are cost effective investments for converting the waste into renewable energy, vehicle biofuels, fertilisers and chemicals.

"Avocet and BioGTS have an agreement to collaborate on a number of projects worldwide. BioGTS will work alongside Avocet to create an efficient and cost effective methanol synthesises unit that can be 'bolted on' to any existing biogas plant. Alongside Avocet's patented methanol additive, the Avocet BioGTS methanol plant will allow production of a fully renewable and green diesel replacement.

"This collaboration will allow Avocet to provide a complete biomethanol solution that is scalable and cost effective. A farmer or council will be able to produce this 'green methanol' from renewable sources at less than £0.18 per litre (with or without the indirect EU subsidy of £0.30 per litre) a green fuel alternative capable of under-pricing diesel."

But there is no mention of BioGTS's crippling financial problems which ended in bankruptcy on November 10th 2018, according to the Finnish Business Information System.

The alarm bells started sounding in June 2018 when Finnish media outlets reported: "The production of biogas has not been at the promised level, and there has been room for improvement in the operational reliability of the plants.

"Plants of various sizes based on BioGTS's dry digestion technology have been ordered for several tens of millions of euros all over Finland. There are about a dozen projects that have received investment support. Construction of these has not yet begun.

"In total, almost EUR 20 million has been accumulated in investment subsidies for projects. Some of the facilities have been top government projects."

And it was later confirmed that BioGTS had filed an application for corporate restructuring with the Central Finland District Court on 17 September 2018. 

This time round Finnish news websites reported: "This year, the company has had problems completing its delivery projects. As a result, two contracts were terminated and the company lost significant contract amounts.

"In the debt restructuring application, BioGTS states that its debts amount to almost EUR 11.7 million. The largest creditors are Finnvera plc, OP Insurance Ltd, OP Life Assurance Company Ltd and Central Finland Cooperative Bank. The largest receivables are from the Central Finland Cooperative Bank: EUR 3.8 million."

The debt-ridden business had been included on a list of “the most interesting companies in the circular economy” by Sitra, the Finnish Innovation Fund. But BioGTS was removed from that list on February 6th 2019 " after the company went bankrupt."

Avocet appears to have had ample time to update its website accordingly.