Steve Case backs Brazilian ethanol venture

AOL founder, supermarket magnate and venture capitalist invest in company that could produce 1B gallons a year: report.


NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- AOL founder Steve Case, supermarket magnate Ron Burkle and venture capitalist Vinod Khosla are investing in a company that could produce up to 1 billion gallons of ethanol a year in Brazil, according to a report Thursday.

Brazilian Renewable Energy Company closed an initial $200 million round of funding this week, according to The Wall Street Journal. The deal is expected to be officially announced Thursday, according to the newspaper.

The company, known as Brenco, will be based in Bermuda and run by Philippe Reichstul, ex-chief executive of Brazil's state oil company, Petrobras, the Journal reported.

Brazil produces about five billion gallons of ethanol a year using sugar cane, which is less costly than the corn used to produce ethanol in the United States, according to the report. The fuel has grown more important in recent years as concerns about energy demand and global climate change has made alternative fuels such as ethanol, solar, and wind energy more attractive to investors.

Another company cashing in on the boom in alternative energy is California-based Ameron International (Charts). Big companies GE (Charts), BP (Charts), DuPont (Charts), and Archer-Daniels-Midland (Charts) are players in the sector too.

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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.