Converted Organics Inc. (NASDAQ: COIN) has closed a tax-exempt New Jersey Economic Development Authority Solid Waste Revenue Bond deal for $17.5 million. The proceeds of the bonds will be used to develop and construct the Company’s initial facility in Woodbridge, NJ. The 20-year bonds will bear interest at 8.0% annually and will be secured by a corporate guarantee by Converted Organics Inc., a leasehold mortgage, and a first lien on equipment and other assets at the New Jersey facility in favor of the bondholders. The borrower under the bond issue will be Converted Organics of Woodbridge, LLC, a wholly-owned New Jersey limited liability subsidiary of Converted Organics Inc. The subsidiary will develop and operate the New Jersey facility.
Edward J. Gildea, President and CEO said, “This has been an exciting week for us. We have closed our equity offering, and the units have begun trading on the NASDAQ. Now, we have completed our bond deal. Combined, these events will allow us to build the New Jersey plant to produce an organic fertilizer, or ‘biostimulant,’ with applications in the agricultural, horticultural, and turf markets. We have already begun to establish relationships with customers on the east coast, and this offering will facilitate the Company’s development and growth.”
About Converted Organics Inc.
Converted Organics produces an organic biostimulant (a natural soil amendment or fertilizer product) through food waste recycling.
Overuse of chemical fertilizers in modern agriculture depletes the overall health of soil, which reduces a plant’s ability to absorb nutrients. Over time, as more fertilizer is needed just to maintain growth rates, large quantities are not absorbed and run off into streams and rivers or leach into groundwater. Converted Organics’ biostimulants offer farmers an environmentally-friendly alternative to help reduce this trend. Its products have been field tested for more than a dozen crops and on average the economic yield to the farmer has increased 11-16%.
The process used by Converted Organics uses microbes, oxygen and heat, in stainless steel digesters, to convert food wastes to an all natural product in 72 hours. The entire process is in an enclosed facility that uses state of the art odor control technology.