Canadian wood pellet producer Viridis up for sale

Canada-based wood pellet producer Viridis Energy is up for sale.

The company had earlier failed to meet a lender's deadline to pay debts owed by one of its subsidiaries.

Viridis appointed US biomass industry consultancy FutureMetrics as the sales representative of the company and its three subsidiaries.

In a statement, FutureMetrics said that the company will either be sold entirely through a stock purchase or by each individual subsidiary.

The company is comprised of the subsidiaries Okanagan Pellet (OPC), Scotia Atlantic Biomass and trading arm Viridis Merchants.

Viridis' lender, Royal Bank of Canada, demanded that OPC pay in full outstanding debts totalling more than $2 million by 18 April. Viridis was unable to make the payment. Viridis will co-operate with the bank to facilitate “an orderly sale” of OPC's assets, it said.

In a statement on the issue, Viridis said: “The company announced on April 5, 2015 that it ceased operations at OPC’s plant in West Kelowna, British Colombia due to recently discovered structural challenges of the building and additional requirements from local authorities concerning dust management.

“After completing substantial upgrades over the past ten months to address regulatory requirements, the capital outlays required to address the recent concerns and restore operations were beyond the company’s existing resources.”