Imperium Renewables seeks $345 million in IPO

Biodiesel producer Imperium Renewables has filed plans to raise as much as $345 million in an initial public offering.

The Seattle-based company, which is building a Grays Harbor biodiesel refinery with 100 million gallon annual capacity, says it is also developing three additional facilities that would bring its capacity to 405 million gallons a year by the end of 2008.

In a regulatory filing today, Imperium also said it has a contractual commitment from one large industrial user to buy at least 18 million gallons of biodiesel annually for approximately five years. It said that is "the single largest long-term biodiesel sales contract to an end user in the U.S."

Biodiesel consumption is growing rapidly in the U.S., but so is production capacity. Use increased from 500,000 gallons in 1999 to an estimated 250 million gallons last year, according to Imperium's filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The company said it has two additional U.S. facilities in the works, and one in Argentina to producebiodiesel for the European market.

The preliminary filing for its stock offering does not indicate the price or number of shares Imperium expects to sell.

The stock would trade under the proposed ticker symbol IMPR. Underwriters for the planned offering are Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers, and UBS Investment Bank.