Ostara and Oakley Sign Letter of Intent for Purchase of Oakley's St. Louis Granulation Facility and Long-term Terminal Services

VANCOUVER, BC, RIVERVIEW, FL and LITTLE ROCK, AR, Nov. 03, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ostara Nutrient Recovery Technologies Inc. ("Ostara") and Bruce Oakley, Inc. ("Oakley") announced today the entering into of a Letter of Intent (the "LOI") providing for the purchase (the "Acquisition") by Ostara of Oakley's fertilizer granulation facility and certain related assets (the "Facility") located on the Mississippi River at Oakley's St. Louis, Missouri warehousing and logistics terminal (the "Terminal"). The Acquisition and certain related transactions are intended to further support production scale-up of Ostara's Crystal Green® brand of sustainable phosphorus-based, continuous-release fertilizer products in response to consistent year-over-year sales growth, existing early-season orders and increasing customer demand.

Pursuant to the LOI, Oakley will also provide long-term, full-service Terminal support for Ostara, including bulk storage, inbound and outbound logistics services via truck, rail and barge, and raw materials supply. Completion of the Acquisition and related transactions is subject to final negotiation and execution of definitive agreements, currently anticipated to occur in December, 2020.  

Engineering and design work to significantly increase current Facility production capacity, is currently underway and Ostara anticipates first phase production to commence within 12 months of the closing of the Acquisition.  In parallel, Ostara has initiated sourcing of personnel to fill key project and production roles and once fully optimized, Ostara expects that output from the Facility will increase Ostara's current aggregate production capacity by a multiple of approximately 10x. Ostara also continues to prioritize significant targeted capital investments in its existing Florida production facility, directed at optimizing and increasing capacity to better serve Ostara customers in the Southeastern USA and throughout North America. 

"The purchase of Oakley's St. Louis granulation facility will enable Ostara to build on the successes achieved at our Florida facility which continues to be overwhelmed by the demand for our Crystal Green® fertilizers, and we are extremely pleased to be executing on the final steps to secure these strategically-located assets", said Dan Parmar, President and Chief Executive Officer of Ostara. "Oakley's breadth of experience, market-leading reputation and world-class infrastructure makes them an ideal long-term partner for Ostara during this accelerated phase of our company's growth."

Said Justin Oakley: "Oakley is honored to partner with Ostara and we look forward to supporting Ostara's innovative line of Crystal Green® products. This transaction and the resulting on-going long-term relationship, will allow both companies to use their core competencies in realizing common goals.  We have enjoyed working with the Ostara team to date and look forward to a joint success."

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About Ostara: Ostara's Crystal Green® fertilizers are the first continuous-release phosphorus fertilizers to release nutrients in response to plant demand; these Root-Activatedtm granules are proven to increase yields, enhance soil health and significantly reduce phosphorus tie-up and runoff, thereby improving food security while protecting local waterways from nutrient pollution.  In addition, the Company's Pearl® technology recovers phosphorus and nitrogen from industrial, agricultural, and municipal water streams, and transforms these nutrients into its premium, sustainable Crystal Green® fertilizers which are sold into the agriculture and turf sectors through a network of established distributors in North America and Europe. To learn more about Ostara's revolutionary technologies, please visit ostara.com | crystalgreen.com.

About Oakley:

Bruce Oakley Inc., led by Dennis and Justin Oakley, was founded by Bruce Oakley in 1968 in El Paso, Ark., and has grown into a diverse bulk commodity transportation and distribution company serving customers throughout North America. www.bruceoakley.com

Media Contact:

Ostara Nutrient Recovery Technologies Inc. | Josh Cinnamon E [email protected]