FTI Consulting has given wood pellets maker Altus Renewables’ suitors until September 15 to prepare their indicative bids for the business, which went into receivership last week.

Altus has production facilities close to forestry areas with access to port infrastructure. Its Tuan Facility has a 125,000 tonnes annual capacity and is running at 90,000 tonnes, according to the flyer. Prospective bidders were told that the company is in the third year of a 10-year offtake. It also has a development site, the Green Triangle Project, near Portland.

Queensland-based Altus used pine sawdust to make pellets, supplying the product as a complementary source of fuel for power stations. It was hurt by rising raw material costs, which ate into profitability despite rising revenues.

It appointed McGrathNicol as the administrators this month, which was followed by lender Mitsui calling FTI as the receivers. Mitsui, which is an offtake counterparty as well as a lender, was owed AU$14.5 million at June last year.

Source: AFR