Abengoa gets USD 350m of stalking horse bids for US ethanol assets

Troubled Spanish engineering and renewables group Abengoa SA (BME:ABG) has received bids with a combined value of around USD 350 million (EUR 311m) for four ethanol production facilities in the US, court documents show.

One of the offers was made by Green Plains Inc (NASDAQ:GPRE), which unveiled it in a regulatory filing. The ethanol producer said it has agreed to act as the stalking horse bidder when it comes to the sale of Abengoa’s plants in Madison, Illinois and Mount Vernon, Indiana, which have the combined capacity to produce about 180 million gallons of ethanol per year. Green Plains has signed a deal to buy those facilities for a total of USD 200 million in cash, plus the assumption of certain liabilities.

Interested parties will have the chance to top Green Plains’ offer. If the latter does not get the assets, Abengoa will have to pay a break-up fee of USD 2.5 million per plant and reimburse expenses up to USD 500,000, according to the filing.

The transaction is also pending court clearance. Subject to these conditions, the acquisitions are seen to be completed in the third quarter of the year.

The court motion that was filed on Sunday also shows that KAAPA Ethanol LLC, through an affiliate, has made a cash bid of USD 115 million for Abengoa’s Ravenna plant in Nebraska. In addition, Houston-headquartered BioUrja Trading LLC has made a stalking horse bid of USD 35 million for the facility in York, Nebraska.

Earlier this year, some of Abengoa’s US subsidiaries initiated cases under Chapter 15, while others filed a voluntary petition for Chapter 11 protection. This followed the parent’s commencement of insolvency proceedings at home in late November 2015.

(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.889)

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