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Jens Ulltveit-Moe has long struggled to get used to his investment in pure, renewable ethanol from sugar cane in Brazil. Now the well-known climate and renewables investor is suffering huge losses after problems for the bioenergy business arose.
According to the 2019 accounts of the owner company UBE Gruppen, the investor amortizes the investment up to NOK 1.57 billion.
The reason is the “very demanding situation” in which the company finds itself.
DN has been in contact with general manager Knud Dalaker at the UBE group, as well as Jens Ulltveit-Moe himself, who refer to Umoe boss Jarle Roth for questions. DN has not made contact with Roth.
Amortization is both for the company’s shares and for the accounts receivable held by the parent company of the Brazilian Umoe Bioenergy sa (UBE).
– The last year has been demanding for the UBE Group subsidiary UBE. It started with an abnormal drought in the summer and fall of 2019, resulting in a lower-than-desired biological mass and thus somewhat lower ethanol production than planned. Lower production, combined with a demanding banking market in Brazil, meant the company was unable to roll over its short-term debt in 2019, the company writes.
As the coronavirus pandemic also hit Brazil hard, falling fuel demand and falling energy prices made operations “even more demanding.”
Don’t deposit more money now
Ulltveit-Moe has contributed in several rounds with more capital to UBE, including NOK 36 million in more capital, and that he exchanged debt of NOK 112 million into shares in 2019. His company Umoe has contributed in three rounds with a total of 333 million, money that was used to pay debts.
The uncertainty is great and in the annual accounts the value of the Brazilian business is set at NOK -342 million, and the capital is NOK -909 million at the end of the year. The largest creditor is parent company Umoe, with a debt of NOK 567 million, which according to the annual report does not intend to repay the loan in 2020.
Work continues on refinancing the debt, which is described as “complicated”.
“Therefore, plans have been drawn for a larger UBE operation, which is based on lower ethanol prices and limited access to new local financing. UBE Gruppen as has also looked for various other ways of realizing the values in UBE in 2020, without success yet. These processes are still ongoing, ”the annual report states.
It seems that the UBE Group has no plans to inject more money into Umoe Bioenergy, he said after the capital that was injected in March and April.
Tap i Rec Silicon store
For many years, Ulltveit-Moe was the largest shareholder in Rec Silicon, a producer of pure silicon used to make solar panels. In December last year, however, it became clear that the investor sold all his shares to Kjell Inge Røkkes Aker, at a hefty discount.
The company was one of the largest and most popular companies on the Oslo Stock Exchange at its peak from 2006 to 2008, and in 2007 it was worth NOK 149 billion. However, when the company was sold, it was on its knees due to a long-standing trade dispute between the US and China, where Rec’s access to the Chinese market is severely limited.
Since 2016, the company has had a total loss of more than seven million crowns.
Spent a billion dollars in 2019
The Ulltveit-Moe Umoe Group’s annual accounts for 2019 show that the company was in a demanding situation even before the crown crisis. Earnings before tax ended at minus NOK 2.2 billion, when the write-offs of NOK 1.2 billion related to ethanol production in Brazil were included, as well as losses related to the sale of Rec Silicon in shares of NOK 298 million.
– It is well known that we have worked with the restructuring and restructuring of the Umoe portfolio. It is also well known that there have been challenges associated with Brazil and Rec Silicon. Last year’s losses are the result of the changes we made, Umoe Group CEO Jarle Roth said when DN discussed the annual accounts in April.
Strong corona impact
Over the years, Ulltveit-Moe has established itself to become the king of Scandinavia’s fast food. The investor owns more than 400 restaurants, many of which are franchises such as Burger King, Starbucks and Peppe’s Pizza.
However, this has not been very profitable. From 2008 to 2019, the total deficit at Umoe Restaurants has approached 1 billion. So it didn’t help that the world was affected by a pandemic.
In April, 3,150 employees were laid off, corresponding to 75 percent of the workforce. When DN mentioned restaurants in April, half of the billing had been lost after the corona pandemic.
Venerable farm for sale in Bærum
This winter and spring, a dispute arose between Ulltveit-Moe and real estate investor Terje Tinholt over whether the venerable Fornebu mansion in Bærum, where the Umoe group is based, has been sold or not.
Tinholt maintained that he had bought the property, while Ulltveit-Moe rejected it. Therefore, in late February, Tinholt saw no other way than to sue Umoe Eiendom to complete the transaction.
In April, however, it became clear that the two parties had reached an agreement on the sale of the farm. (Terms)Copyright Dagens Næringsliv AS and / or our suppliers. We would like you to share our cases via a link, which leads directly to our pages. Copying or other use of all or part of the content may only be done with written permission or as permitted by law. For more terms, see here.
