Argent secures £7m in funding from RBS

Biodiesel producer Argent Energy Group has been awarded £7 million (€8.1 million) from the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) to help fund its development.

Argent secured £4 million from RBS and £2.95 million from the bank's asset financing division, Lombard.

The banking package includes the provision of debt and full-money transmission services. Lombard is funding the purchase of innovative equipment that will enable Argent to convert used cooking oil and tallow recovered from wastewater treatment companies into biodiesel.

'We have ambitious growth plans and felt we needed a bank we could build a good relationship with and which has a strong local presence. As a Scottish bank, the team at RBS offer just that. We have been able to agree a package that is tailored to our needs and will help us achieve our strategic objectives,' says managing director of Argent Energy, Jim Walker.

Argent has an annual production capacity of 50 million litres a year of biodiesel, which is manufactured at its commercial-scale production plant in Newarthill. Argent's customers include Stagecoach, which uses biodiesel in many of its vehicles.