Statement re Investee Company

Billam PLC
14 September 2004


                                   BILLAM PLC

                                     (AIM)

   BILLAM ADDS A FUTHER INVESTMENT TO ITS PORTFOLIO BY TAKING 2% STAKE IN TMO
                                 BIOTEC LIMITED

The Board of Billam Plc ('Billam' or 'the Company'), the investment company
specialising in technology for the future, is pleased to announce that it has
invested £114,000 in TMO Biotec Limited ('TMO'), taking a 2% stake in the
Britishindustrial biotechnology company.

TMO is raising £1.5 million in the current round and Billam is the final
participant. TMO is developing proprietary technology that will revolutionise
the way in which fuels including biodiesel and bioethanol and other chemicals
such as lactic acid are produced. TMO believes that biofuels offer the best
option to drastically reduce carbon dioxide emissions from transportation fuel
chains.

TMO has developed a technology platform based on micro-organisms, called
thermophiles, with exceptional characteristics and potential for industrial
applications in major world markets. TMO has secured exclusive rights to the
World's largest collection of such organisms. Thermophiles possess several
metabolic traits which, when optimised, give them unique suitability for
industrial biotechnology, offering many industrial process advantages.

TMO is run by a team of directors with expertise at senior level including
Shell, ICI and leading university scientists with relevant experience in
industry.

Further products have been identified and will be developed following the
successful exploitation of the first three product lines - bioethanol, biodiesel
and lactic acid. TMO plans to exploit its technology through a series of
licensing deals with major industrial partners world-wide. It is currently in
negotiation with potential partners for each of the products identified above.

The world markets for each of the three identified product lines is measured in
US$ billions pa. In the case of bioethanol, production is circa 30 million
tonnes pa, with a value of $13 billion, with the market in 2006 expected to rise
to 48 mtpa ($21 billion). TMO's technology will improve efficiency and reduce
production cost of bioethanol by 25 - 50% plus to $30 per barrel. In 2003, the
market for biodiesel is expected to be 2.5 million tpa and in 2002, the market
for lactic acid was valued at around $700 million rising to some $4.5 billion by
2020.

Commenting on today's announcement, Angus Forrest, Chief Executive of Billam,
said: 'We believe this is an exciting and core investment as TMO has the
opportunity to revolutionise the production of sustainable biofuels world-wide,
and a strategy to exploit its technology in the short medium and longer terms
which by working in partnership with major industrial companies minimises the
market risks whilst generating significant revenues at an early stage.'

Enquiries

Billam Plc                             020 7336 1300
Angus Forrest

TMO Biotec                             01483 688 289
Dr Joachim Lukas

Bishopsgate Communications             020 7430 1600
Maxine Barnes / Dominic Barretto
[e-mail]

Notes to editors

About TMO

Much of TMO's advantage lies in accumulated knowledge in applied research on
thermophiles. These have been screened and those selected modified to make them
stable and highly productive process organisms and biocatalysts, tailored to
maximise production of the desired product.

TMO is developing its engineering to be retrofitted to existing plants so
delivering for the plant owner/operator a significantly more efficient plant at
minimum cost and disruption. TMO is a partner in a major EU bioethanol
consortium and there are plans for the pilot plant to be operational within 6
months. TMO plans to secure several corporate partnerships in 2004 / 05.

Advantages to TMO's Thermophiles

   • It uses renewable and sustainable biomass as feed stocks;
   • Utilises such biomass far more efficiently than any current process,
    significantly exceeding production rates of currently used micro-organisms;
   • It can be applied in efficient continuous production processes; and
   • Is certified safe by the FDA in the USA.






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