After a big buyout last year, chicken-manure energy firm BHSL hunts fresh investment
The Limerick company is seeking €5 million to fund its new ‘working capital requirements’.
AGRICULTURAL TECHNOLOGY FIRM BHSL is seeking a further €5 million from investors following a multimillion-euro acquisition last year.
The Limerick-based outfit builds systems for converting poultry manure into energy and heating for use on farms.
In 2017, it raised €7 million in equity financing and acquired for €5 million Meath-based waste-water treatment company Hydro International, which counts Unilever, Coca-Cola and the Kerry group as customers.
According to its latest company accounts, BHSL – which stands for Biomass Heating Solutions Limited and now runs under the name BHSL Hydro – is seeking to raise a further €5 million in equity financing “to fund the working capital requirements of the combined businesses”.
It said that around €1.2 million of this money has been committed.
A spokesperson for the group did not respond to a request for comment on the current status of the fundraising in time for publication.
BHSL founder Jack O’Connor (left)
Hydro International continues to operate under the ownership of BHSL while the combined company operates systems that recover energy from waste water sludge.
“(The) technology will enable these wastes not to be viewed as a ‘disposal problem’, but instead recovered as a valuable sustainable resource giving back both profitability to the business and a solution to health and environmental issues,” the company said in the documents.
Future plans
For the year ended June 2017, BHSL booked a loss of €1.8 million, down from the €4.1 million loss the year prior. It recorded an accumulated loss of over €14.9 million at the end of the 12-month period.
BHSL and Hydro International’s combined sales for the year were €15.6 million, according to the directors’ report.
Its average staff for the year increased from 22 people to 48. The wages and salaries bill for the year worked out at roughly €43,600 per person.
The company, founded by poultry farmer Jack O’Connor, said it will continue investing further in research and development around heat and electricity generation and cooling.
It added in its accounts that it is looking at more opportunities abroad and expanded its presence in the UK.
In the US, it is running a $3 million project with the Maryland Department of Agriculture.
The pilot is aimed at demonstrating how the Irish company’s technology can be used to offset environmental concerns in the state’s poultry industry.
Speaking to Fora previously, Jack O’Connor said the idea for BHSL evolved after his family-owned poultry farm was going to be shut down because of a ban on spreading chicken manure in the west Limerick region.
He tested the idea with a combustion unit on his own farm and the business grew from there.
