The Perth-based company offered 53.34 million shares at $1.50 each, to raise $80 million through its initial public offer.

The IPO, which closed oversubscribed on Tuesday, was Australia’s largest to date.

Natural Fuel debuted 2c below its offer price. At 1333 AEDT yesterday, the stock had dropped to $1.33.

The company plans to use the proceeds from the IPO to build biodiesel plants in Singapore and Houston.

Natural Fuel, chaired by former Australian opposition leader John Hewson, is in the process of commissioning a 147 million litre Darwin biorefinery.

Constructed in Perth, then shipped to Darwin, the modular refinery was built in partnership with Babcock & Brown Environmental Investments. The two companies have plans to build an even bigger plant at Port Botany, Sydney. Government approval is expected in the next couple of months.

Production from Natural Fuel’s Darwin plant is expected in January. The $78 million refinery will produce biodiesel from palm oil, which will be blended with mineral diesel and distributed in the Northern Territory, Queensland and northern Western Australia.

The first phase of Natural Fuel’s $130 million Singapore-based plant is scheduled to come onstream by the end of next year and is expected to produce about 600,000 tonnes of biodiesel.

A second and third phase would raise output to 1.8 million tonnes per year.

Natural Fuel also has operations planned for the United States and eventually Europe. It is currently considering developing additional facilities in Sydney, Rotterdam or Antwerp.