ASX-listed tyre recycling company Entyr (Pearl Global) has called in administrators less than six months after boasting it had secured an offtake deal with global commodities trader Trafigura.

Richard Hughes and Travis Anderson of Deloitte Financial Advisory were on Tuesday appointed joint and several administrators of Queensland-based Entyr, which listed among its shareholders a company associated with billionaire investor Alex Waislitz.

In a statement to the ASX, the directors said the appointment was the best mechanism to accelerate a recapitalization or sale of the business. Impacted creditors would receive separate correspondence directly from the administrators.

Deloitte’s Mr Anderson said the business would continue to trade while the administrators undertook an urgent assessment of its financial position and the future of the business and its assets.

Founded in 2011, the penny-stock has so far processed three million tyres using a patented thermal process from which oil and carbon black is derived. This is then used in commercial asphalt mixes across roads in southeast Queensland.

The company has invested more than $40m over 12 years developing the technology. Entyr chief executive David Wheeley said last year the offtake deal with Singapore-based Trafigura provided a strong platform for growth and would help fund the construction of a fully-commercial plant at Stapylton, south of Brisbane.

Mr. Wheeley said the Stapylton plant would be able to handle two million tyres a year.

“Waste tyres are one of the world’s biggest environmental challenges and in Australia alone over 80 percent are sent to landfill, burnt, or exported overseas for burning,” he said at the time.

“This collaboration with Trafigura will support our technology to be scaled up addressing this global issue while developing high-quality products.”

In the company’s annual report last year, auditors Pitcher Partners said there was material uncertainty related to the company’s ability to continue as a going concern, noting its $7.6m in cash outflows last year and a cash balance of $1.34m.