EcoCeres, the Hong Kong-based renewable fuels producer backed by Bain Capital, is planning to raise about $1bn in a Hong Kong initial public offering, according to a report by Reuters.

Bain invested more than $700m in EcoCeres in a deal completed in January 2023, a commitment the company describes as its most significant energy-transition-related investment in the region. An IPO would provide a potential path to crystallise value on that wager. The capital was earmarked to scale the business globally, and its first use was to fund expansion into Malaysia.

The company's roots run through Hong Kong's corporate establishment. EcoCeres was incubated in 2008 by Towngas, formally Hong Kong and China Gas, one of the territory's largest energy suppliers, before becoming an independent company in 2021. It then raised more than $100m in a Series A round from Kerogen Capital, an energy-focused private equity firm, ahead of Bain's much larger cheque. Towngas and Kerogen remain shareholders alongside Bain, and the pension investor CPP Investments has also been listed among its backers.

EcoCeres is a pure-play renewable fuels producer that uses its own hydroprocessing technology to convert waste-based feedstocks, such as used cooking oil and agricultural residues, into drop-in fuels including SAF, hydrotreated vegetable oil for road transport, renewable naphtha, and cellulosic ethanol. It operates a plant in Zhangjiagang, in China's Jiangsu province, and in October 2025 commissioned a second, larger facility in Pasir Gudang, Johor, Malaysia, the country's first SAF plant, built at a cost of around $500m. The company has also flagged plans for a further plant of around 450,000 tonnes a year in the Hong Kong area, and says its fuels helped customers avoid 1.2 million tonnes of emissions in 2025.