The company Cortus Energy filed for bankruptcy in Solna District Court on Wednesday. This was stated in a press release by the company, which means that yet another company promised to deliver “green transition” has thrown in the towel.
“I have no comments,” said former board member and MP-profile Maria Wetterstrand to Samnytt.
With the goal of converting biomass into biogas, the company Cortus Energy was formed in 2006. Biogas was seen as the future fuel for vehicles, and car manufacturers such as Saab and Volvo invested in it.
While the climate movement gains momentum, more green solutions are promised in the coming years. This includes climate-friendly aviation fuel and green coal.
The state investigation
However, the company has struggled to start commercial production. A test facility was started in Köping in 2011, but large-scale production seems distant.
In March 2019, Maria Wetterstrand, former spokesperson for the Green Party, submitted a state investigation to the then-red-green government, recommending that 30 percent of all aviation fuel should be renewable by 2030.
Cortus Energy’s stock price soared on the stock exchange, rising over 40 percent in a single day. Renewable aviation fuel is one of the products promised by the company.
However, at this time, Maria Wetterstrand was not only a state investigator. Since 2013, she has also been on the board of Cortus Energy and simultaneously owns 615,000 shares in the company, which thus benefited from her own investigation.
Investing in “green steel”
Meanwhile, Cortus Energy has entered into another area: industrial production of so-called “green steel”. The idea is for Cortus Energy’s biogas and green coal to be used in Höganäs AB’s steel production. This will be the company’s only commercial facility.
However, Cortus Energy is bleeding large sums of money. The total loss from 2020 to 2024 amounts to over 300 million SEK. More and more capital is needed to keep the business afloat.
In early March this year, an extraordinary general meeting is called to attempt to raise more equity capital through a new share issue. However, just two weeks later, on Wednesday of this week, the company announced in a press release that it is applying for bankruptcy in Solna District Court.
The bankruptcy application also includes the company’s subsidiaries. Avanza Pension was Cortus Energy’s largest shareholder at the time of the bankruptcy, with just over ten percent of the shares.
“No comments”
Former MP-profile Maria Wetterstrand left Cortus Energy’s board in 2020, citing lack of time. Since then, she has been the CEO of the Finnish PR and consulting company Miltton Europe’s Brussels office.
When Samnytt contacted Wetterstrand, she declined to comment on the Cortus Energy bankruptcy.
“I have no comments,” she said.
However, she mentioned that she never sold her shares in the company and thus lost her invested money.
Sold 1.3 million shares
Someone who did manage to sell at least some of their shares was Cortus Energy’s chairman, Rolf Richard Bagge.
According to the Financial Supervisory Authority’s tool for insider trading, he sold nearly 1.3 million shares in the company during a ten-day period before the bankruptcy application was submitted.
The Financial Supervisory Authority declined to comment on the sale.
“How individual persons trade in financial instruments is not something the FSA can comment on. The rules governing trading by persons in leading positions in an issuer are set out in the Market Abuse Regulation,” wrote the authority’s press secretary Karin Franck in an email to Samnytt.