D1 Oils Chairman and activist investor Brian Myerson has plans to turn the jatropha group into an African ethanol company. Myerson has proposed buying the oilseeds group to use it as a vehicle for floating a cane sugar ethanol venture, Principle Energy, which he is setting up in central Mozambique. The takeover would see D1's jatropha businesses sold-off by February.

The proposed takeover would see D1’s jatropha businesses sold-off by February, and its resources, including £10.3m in free cash, plus $70m-80m in new shares used to develop the ethanol business.

However his plan is being resisted by the remaining five directors, who said they believe D1 Oils had “good long term growth potential” as a champion of jatropha, whose seeds can be refined into biofuels, and which, unlike other oilseed crops, can be grown on poor quality land.

Source info: http://www.biofuelsdigest.com/blog2/2010/01/27/d1-oils-board-splits-on-whether-to-sell-up-and-invest-in-ethanol-or-continue-its-jatropha-biodiesel-mission/