Papyrus wins $1.2m grant for banana paper
(Advertiser 18may06) PAPYRUS Australia has been awarded a $1.2 million grant to commercialise its paper-making technology.
The money, from a Federal Government Commercial Ready grant, would be used to build a demonstration plant in Queensland.
The Adelaide-based company expects the plant, able to produce 20,000 tonnes of paper per year from banana ply, would be ready by May next year.
The company plans to sell the paper-making technology, rather than produce the paper commercially.
Papyrus managing director Ramy Azer would not reveal how much a 20,000 tonne plant would cost, but said with paper costing about $1000 a tonne to buy, but only about $150 per tonne to produce with the Papyrus technology, investors would be looking at a good return on investment.
(Full Disclosure: I was acting CEO of Papyrus most of 2004, I have no ongoing inside information.)
Mr Azer said the company had $2.5 million in the bank as well as the grant money.
"We're misers when it comes to spending the hard-earned money we raised from investors," Mr Azer said. "We've achieved more than what we were going to achieve. We're ahead of schedule but we've spent less than we thought we were going to.
"(The grant) is an endorsement of the management team and the corporate strategy it is implementing to commercialise the result of a decade of hard work."
Papyrus Australia raised $4 million from investors before listing on the Australian Stock Exchange last year. Federal Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane said the project could result in significant benefits for Australia.
"Banana plantations are grown world-wide and Papyrus's technology could generate valuable export dollars for Australia," Mr Macfarlane said.
Papyrus shares closed steady at 32c yesterday on the Australian Stock Exchange after trading as high as 41c. (share price chart)
Posted by mitra at May 21, 2006 8:32 AM
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