While I track 53 companies that produce some form of biofuel, most of these companies don’t pass a basic screen for investment and hence inclusion on NEV’s BIOFUEL index. For a specific stock to be included the company has to (1) generate a material portion of its revenue, generally over 50%, from sustainable energy activities, (2) have a total market capitalization (not float adjusted) of at least $100 million USD at the time of inclusion, (3) trade on a recognized exchange for at least 6 months, and (4) have adequate trading volume for reasonable liquidity. We exclude companies that are in bankruptcy or are publicly traded project finance vehicles.
Until recently the group that passed these screens had shrunk to just 8 companies. But one of the companies that I had been forced to remove a few years ago has staged a comeback and now has nearly 500 million USD in market cap. As a result we have expanded the index to include Green Plains Renewable Energy [GPRE] as of 4/26/2011. Amyris [AMRS] is a candidate for inclusion but currently is an R&D stage company and our experience has shown that companies at this stage present additional risks that make them speculative for investment purposes.
Registered users of New Energy View can see the complete list of companies by going to the Research > Company Search tab and filtering for companies producing biodiesel, biofuel, biogas, biomass, ethanol, methane, or plant oil.