Swedish agricultural cooperative Lantmännen Group has announced that it has signed an agreement to divest its wood pellet production business Scandbio to the German energy company LEAG Group.
The largest pellet producer in Scandinavia, Scandbio has been part of Lantmännen since 2014.
By refining waste products from the forestry industry, Scandbio takes advantage of natural resources in a resource-efficient way and contributes to a circular, sustainable solution.
Its products heat households, provide energy for businesses and publicly owned operations, and fuel production in both small and large industries.
Scandbio has developed very well within Lantmännen in the past several years. As part of LEAG Group, which is a strong player in European energy production, Scandbio will find a suitable industrial home, in order to further develop as an important player in the biomass industry, said Magnus Kagevik, Lantmännen’s Group President and CEO.
Scandbio has production at five facilities in Sweden and one in Latvia. Sales are primarily focused on Sweden, Latvia, and Denmark. Scandbio has 130 employees.
LEAG Group currently has four wood pellet plants in Germany.
As demand for sustainable energy sources increases, Scandbio represents an investment for the future of climate-friendly energy and the biomass market. LEAG Group is a future-oriented buyer with long experience within the German biomass industry, said Dr Philipp Nellessen, Member of LEAG Group’s Board of Directors.
Facts
About LEAG Group
Based in Lusatia and the Central German mining district, LEAG Group is one of the top five electricity producers in Germany.
Amongst other things, the company operates four lignite-fired power plants near Leipzig and in the Lusatian mining region with an installed capacity of around 8 GW, of which 1 GW is part of the German supply reserve.
The electricity production of the lignite-fired power plants is adapted to the demand of electricity consumers and the currently available renewable electricity generation (redispatch). These plants also supply district heat and process steam for communities and industry.
Companies within the Group cover the entire open-cast lignite mining, transport, and refining processes, along with machinery engineering and maintenance, and mine recultivation as well as the Group’s transition to renewable energy. The latter includes wind, solar PV, and biomass utilizing exhausted and recultivated mines.
By the end of 2038 at the latest, coal-fired power generation in Germany will be completely phased out. The phase-out path envisages that LEAG’s 500 MW units will be gradually decommissioned starting in 2025.
LEAG Biomass GmbH manages LEAG’s activities in solid fuels. This includes LEAG’s wood pellet plants in Schwedt (Brandenburg), Wismar (Mecklenburg-Vorpommer), Oranienbaum (Saxony-Anhalt), and Löbau (Saxony) with their integrated biomass power plants for heat and power generation.
The transaction, the value of which has not been disclosed, is dependent on approval from relevant authorities and is expected to be finalized later this year.
