Former Irish Farmers Journal CEO and editor Justin McCarthy is to be appointed to key roles in a Galway company that is to the fore on reducing methane emissions from livestock.
McCarthy has been appointed CEO of GlasPort Bio and executive chair of GlasPort Rumen Tech, two companies which are subject to planned share purchases by London Stock Exchange-listed Roebuck Food Group (RFG) plc on Friday.
Roebuck intends to raise €8.5m in funds to invest in Glasport Bio and McCarthy will step down from his current role at Roebuck to take up the Glasport CEO and executive chair roles.
GlasPort Bio is a biotechnology company based in Galway, where it has developed two products - methane-reducing feed additive RumenGlas and methane-reducing slurry additive GasAbate.
Stock exchange
Roebuck notified the London Stock Exchange on Friday evening that it intended to acquire a controlling interest of between 35% and 38.7% in GlasPort Bio Limited (GlasPort Bio), with an option to increase its holding to 94.47%; and to acquire an interest of 13% to 16.7% in GlasPort Rumen Tech Limited (GlasPort Rumen Tech).
RFG CEO Kieran Mahon said: “This is a great new step-out for Roebuck as we seek to grow in new and exciting areas of the food and agribusiness sector.”
Investment
Commenting on the announcement, McCarthy said: “We are delighted to make this investment, subject to fund raise and shareholder approval, into what we believe are breakthrough technologies that will fundamentally reset the conversation around the impact of the global livestock sector on climate change.
“GlasPort Bio, under the leadership of Dr Ruairi Friel and Professor Vincent O'Flaherty, has developed scientifically validated, impactful, cost-effective and globally scalable technologies that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions from livestock while also helping to improve air, soil and water quality alongside farm profitability. I look forward to supporting the team in GlasPort Bio as we bring these important technologies to market,” he added.
Methane reductions
Last year, Teagasc said that the slurry additive GasAbate could reduce methane emissions from slurry by greater than 80%, while also reducing other harmful gas emissions, such as ammonia and hydrogen sulphide.
It added that preliminary trials at Teagasc Grange suggest that RumenGlas could lead to methane emissions reductions of 30%, while allowing dramatic increases in animal performance.
Finishing cattle on the trial had a 19% increase in daily weight gain.
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