BioAmber raises $80 million for Sarnia biorefinery

The money was raised by
offering 8.0 million units at $10, the low end of the range of
$10 to $12, according to Nasdaq. It is also lower than the $150 million the company said it would raise back in 2011, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. The company is creating a bio-succinic acid plant in Sarnia's biotech park. The plant
will produce 30,000 tonnes/yr to feed into an existing market for
petroleum-based succinic acids used for food additives, plastics and personal care products.

At the recent CanBio biofuels conference in Sarnia, BioAmber's Anne Waddell
explained that the company is targeting a mix of existing drop-in markets as well as those that are expected to open up to lower-cost biomass-based versions of succinic acids. She says they will also target this intermediate markets worth $10 billion where their
product would be a drop-in replacement for petrochemicals that are becoming
increasingly expensive.

"In some cases, the shortages or escalating prices are
already happening, for example with some C5 and C6 type chemicals. There are markets
where succinic acids derived from petroleum are just too expensive, but a
cheaper bio-based product will open up totally new markets," she said in response to questions by Canadian Biomass.  

BioAmber plans to list the units on the NYSE under the symbol
BIOAU, the common stock under the symbol BIOA and the warrants
under the symbol BIOAWS.