(Sioux Falls, S.D.)– The nation’s second largest ethanol producer, which is under chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, says it has received an unsolicited buyout offer.
The announcement from Verasun Energy Corporation late Monday came hours after Jeff Broin, Chief Executive of privately held Poet LLC, told the Associated Press that his company was in talks with a number of ethanol producers.
Poet is the nation’s top ethanol producer. Both companies are based in Sioux Falls.
The biofuels industry has been rattled by volatile prices for corn, which is used to make ethanol, as well as tumbling crude oil prices that makes biofuels less competitive. Frozen credit markets have also deprived ethanol producers of much needed capital.
Industry analysts almost universally agree that a consolidation of the industry, which expanded rapidly, is overdue.
(Story from the Associated Press.).
