The original version of this story incorrectly stated the estimated start date of Elevance Renewable Sciences at the company’s Natchez plant. Elevance is commencing operations in 2013 in Natchez.The Democrat regrets the error and is happy to set the record straight.

NATCHEZ — Local community members probably consider themselves stakeholders in the future of a big, new specialty chemicals plant in Natchez.

But residents should soon get a chance to own a direct share of the area’s economic development good fortune by becoming stockholders of Elevance Renewable Sciences.

Elevance Renewable Sciences registered for an initial public offering with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Wednesday.

By going public, the company hopes to raise $100 million.

Shares of the stock should be for sale and listed on Nasdaq under the symbol “ERSI” in as early as six months.

Gov. Haley Barbour announced in June Elevance’s plans to locate in Adams County after acquiring the former Delta Biofuels site, where it plans to provide 165 permanent jobs and 300 temporary construction jobs.

Headquartered in Bolingbrook, Ill., Elevance creates specialty chemicals from natural oils using a patented technology called olefin metathesis, a process that won the 2005 Nobel Prize in chemistry.

Using the process, the facility near the Adams County Port will manufacture “high performance ingredients” for use in personal care products, detergents, fuels, lubricants and other specialty chemical markets.

Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, Jefferies, Piper Jaffray and Raymond James are underwriting the IPO.

Elevance did not disclose the number of shares it would sell or their expected price, according to documents filed with the SEC.

Professor of Finance and dean of the School of Business at the University of Mississippi Ken Cyree said going public allows anyone, anywhere a shot at partial ownership of a company through stocks.

“(Going public) allows any company to tap into a much larger and broader spectrum of possible investors,” Cyree said.

Cyree said local firms that are not publicly traded have more difficulty trading stock.

“That’s why (companies) like to go public, you get a lot more capital — or money — because more (investors) than just the company can invest in their firm.”

Cyree said the underwriting companies, once the stock is listed, will sell shares of Elevance’s stock.

Officials from Elevance were unable to comment on the company’s move to go public this week.

“Due to the quiet period, Elevance is unable to comment on its IPO filing and business activities,” a statement from Elevance said.

According to the SEC website, a quiet period extends from the time a company files a registration statement with the SEC until SEC staff declare the registration statement “effective,” which takes 180 days on average.

During that period, the federal securities laws limit what information a company and related parties can release to the public.

Cyree said the purpose of a quiet period it to prevent those with insider information from jumping the gun to purchase shares when the public has a disadvantage of knowing less information.

In the prospectus listed on the SEC website, Elevance cites its short company history as a risk factor.

Elevance was formed in 2007 to continue work started in 2004 in a collaborative project between Cargill, Inc., one of the world’s largest producers of agricultural oils, and Materia Inc., a leading edge technology organization leveraging patents from the California Institute of Technology to commercialize the production of renewable chemicals, the SEC document says.

“Any assessments you make about our current business and predictions you make about our future success or viability may not be as accurate as they would be if we had a longer operating history,” the SEC document says.

Cyree said Elevance is “younger” than the average of most companies that file for an IPO.

However, he said, companies must jump a number of hurdles set by the SEC in order to be traded publicly.

For example, the company must have a good track record and high number of sales, he said.

“The lowest bar is still a high deal,” Cyree said.

Natchez Inc. Executive Director Chandler Russ said he preferred not to comment on Elevance IPO status to prevent tampering with the SEC regulations.

Russ said construction on the Natchez plant is still expected to begin in the fourth quarter of this year, likely in November.

While construction has not started, Elevance’s current employees, most of whom were former Delta Biofuels employees, have been reporting to work and the steam and whirs of industry could be seen and heard Friday afternoon.

Elevance expects to begin commercial operations at the Natchez facility in 2013.