TowerBrook Capital Partners, the New York-based private equity firm with $19bn in AUM, is exploring a sale of Austrocel Hallein GmbH, a bio-refinery based in Austria, as interest builds from strategic and sovereign investors in climate-aligned industrial assets, according to a report by Bloomberg.
Austrocel, which converts waste wood into bioethanol and specialty biopolymers, has attracted preliminary interest from European industrial groups and Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds, according to Patrick Verschelde, a senior advisory board member at TowerBrook. The process is being managed privately, with a potential valuation of up to €500m ($569m), based on company-disclosed EBITDA and market multiples.
The Salzburg-based facility, acquired by TowerBrook in 2017, has undergone a strategic transformation. It now ranks as the world’s leading producer of wood-based bioethanol (30 million litres/year) and has ramped up industrial-scale production of an EU-approved agricultural biogel that reduces irrigation needs by over 20%. The biogel – a sustainable alternative to synthetic polymers – is positioned to benefit from impending EU regulations mandating the phase-out of microplastic-containing agro-products by 2028.
Austrocel is expanding biogel output five-fold in 2025, with scalability up to 10,000 tons annually as demand accelerates across drought-stricken agricultural markets in Austria, Germany, Italy and Spain.
The product was originally developed at Vienna’s BOKU University and is commercialised in partnership with Agrobiogel GmbH, a spinout led by Austrocel’s former R&D chief. Austrocel manages the proprietary manufacturing process, while Agrobiogel oversees IP and go-to-market execution.
The company reported FY24 revenues of €180m, up 15% YoY, and EBITDA of approximately €54m. Based on current market comparables – with listed peers such as Stora Enso and Svenska Cellulosa trading at 10x+ EBITDA – Austrocel is expected to command a robust valuation amid investor appetite for scalable decarbonisation technologies.
TowerBrook’s investment thesis has centred on driving operational efficiencies and innovation across Austrocel’s vertically integrated platform, leveraging the region’s longstanding forestry infrastructure to meet growing sustainability-linked demand.
