Bahamas Waste: Biodiesel Deal ‘Huge Win-Win’

by Neil Hartnell (Tribune 242) Bahamas Waste yesterday said it had created “a win-win” for all stakeholders by selling a majority 51 per cent interest in its fledgling biodiesel business to a local partner for just $180,433. Francisco de Cardenas, Bahamas Waste’s managing director, told Tribune Business that Bahamas-domiciled 700 Islands Energy Ltd was “just as hungry as we are” to make the loss-making venture work.

“We needed to get somebody in that had the passion, the savvy and the technology to make it [biodiesel] work, and we feel we have the right people,” Mr de Cardenas said.

“We’ve given over management to them, 700 Islands, and are really excited. It is too good an environmental initiative to give up on it, and we have to do what we have to make this thing work.

The only present customer for the fuel produced by the waste vegetable oil recycling venture is Bahamas Waste itself, which uses the finished product as an ‘oil price hedge’ and to power several of its vehicle fleet.

Among the principals in 700 Islands Energy, which is based at the Airport Industrial Park, is well-known Bahamian soccer player and coach, Happy Hall.

He has partnered with Michael Lokey, a Florida-based entrepreneur, who is the founding partner and chief executive of Sunshine Biofuels, a five-year old company based on Lake Worth.

As a result, the biodiesel operation is likely to fit better with a privately-owned Bahamian company able to take losses in the initial stages, rather than a publicly-owned company whose responsibilities elsewhere.

Mr de Cardenas indicated as much, but told Tribune Business that the venture was too important for the country to lose, given that it represents one of the first tangible efforts to benefit the environment and economy via waste recycling. READ MORE