Agronomics investee Liberation gets USDA-backed financing

1st Dec 2023 12:03

(Sharecast News) - Cellular agriculture investor Agronomics announced a significant step in constructing and finalising Liberation Labs' biomanufacturing facility in Indiana on Friday.

The AIM-traded firm said the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) had granted a substantial loan guarantee of $25m to Ameris Bank, which was intended to support the project.

It said Liberation Labs was building a state-of-the-art, commercial-scale precision fermentation biomanufacturing facility with a capacity of 600,000 litres, with a dedicated downstream process.

The facility would enable companies to scale their production to meet commercial demands, ultimately achieving favourable unit economics.

With the loan guarantee in place, Liberation Labs was poised to complete the rest of the facility's construction within the next year, with commercial production set to start in the first quarter of 2025.

Upon completion, the facility would be tailored for precision fermentation products, offering cost-optimised production, enhanced yield rates, and improved operational efficiency for various innovative bio-based proteins, including precision fermentation-derived egg and dairy proteins.

Agronomics was a key investor in Liberation Labs since its inception, with an initial investment of $7.6m.

The investment currently carries a value of £18.4m, representing 10.5% of Agronomics' last published net asset value on 30 September, including post-balance sheet date adjustments.

Agronomics holds an equity ownership stake of 37.4% in Liberation Labs on a fully diluted basis.

"Liberation Labs is developing state-of-the-art purpose-built fermentation infrastructure which will transform the existing fermentation capacity and help build a future in which precision fermentation proteins reach the industrial scale needed to meet growing demand in the US and across the world," said Agronomics executive director Jim Mellon.

"With continued progress being made and key delivery timelines on track, we look forward to the operational launch in 2025."

At 1124 GMT, shares in Agronomics were down 0.38% at 10.36p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.