Global Clean Energy provides update on pending acquisition

Houston-based Global Clean Energy Inc. (GCE) has announced it is moving ahead with its acquisition in the platinum group metals (PGM) industry.

The company says it has executed a binding financial term sheet for the capital funding required to proceed with the acquisition. The capital will be used by GCE to acquire the target company and fund its growth in the sector. GCE says it expects the transaction to be completed within 60 days.

According to GCE, it is estimated that 15 to 20 percent of the world’s PGM is recovered from spent auto-catalysts and that this represents three-quarters of the total secondary PGM supply. In the North American market, where the use of catalytic converters has been mandated for more than 30 years, recovered metal now accounts for more than half of the platinum required for the manufacture of new catalytic converters.

Supply concerns due to the South African platinum miners’ strike and fears of sanctions against Russia, the world’s largest producer of the metals, are driving the demand for recovered PGM on a global scale, the company notes in a press release. GCE says it plans to expand operations within North and South America.

“GCE’s acquisition demonstrates the company’s confidence in the sector and its strategy to become one of the fastest growing firms in the industry,” says Brian Levine, COO of GCE. “The company will introduce new programs into a very lucrative, yet fragmented industry, ripe for consolidation.”

The company also announced it is in the final stages of the resolution of Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) requirements to resume trading in Canada. GCE has engaged Canadian Auditors to complete International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) filings and reports that this is expected to be resolved early in the second quarter of 2015.