NTR’s North American Corn-Based Ethanol Business, VBV, Completes Merger With Green Plains Renewable Energy Inc
NTR plc’s North American Corn-based ethanol business, VBV LLC (“VBV”) announced that it has completed the previously-announced merger with Green Plains Renewable Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ: GPRE), effective today, Wednesday, October 15, 2008. The merger creates one of the nation’s largest publicly-traded ethanol production companies, trading on the NASDAQ exchange, with complementary grain, agronomy, feed, fuel and ethanol marketing and distribution operations. NTR’s shareholding, together with associated VBV owners, in GPRE post-merger is circa 68%.
As a result of the merger, Green Plains triples its operating capacity and will enjoy improved economies of scale together with a strong balance sheet to pursue new opportunities for strategic growth.
Post-merger, Green Plains has four ethanol plants and eight grain elevators, with an expected annual operating capacity of 330 million gallons of ethanol and grain storage capacity of 22 million bushels. As part of the merger, Green Plains added an operating ethanol plant in Indiana and an ethanol plant in Tennessee that is expected to start production later this year, along with an ethanol marketing and distribution business throughout the USA.
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About NTR plc
NTR plc is a leading international developer and operator in renewable energy and sustainable waste management. Founded in 1978, NTR has evolved from being a developer and operator of infrastructure in Ireland to an international developer and operator of renewable energy (wind, solar and bio-ethanol), and sustainable waste management businesses in the USA, UK, and Ireland. The company employs over 4,100 people and has a market capitalization in excess of €1.3 bn ($2 bn).
About Green Plains Renewable Energy, Inc.
Green Plains, based in Omaha, Nebraska, has the strategy of becoming a verticallyintegrated, low-cost ethanol producer. Green Plains’ ethanol segment operates two plants in Iowa with a combined operating capacity of approximately 110 million gallons of ethanol per year. Green Plains also recently acquired two ethanol plant subsidiaries that are expected to have an ethanol operating capacity of approximately 220 million gallons of ethanol per year, with production expected to begin in fall 2008. Green Plains’ agribusiness segment operates grain storage facilities with a capacity of approximately 19 million bushels. Additionally, the agribusiness segment has complementary agronomy, feed and petroleum businesses.
This news release may contain, among other things, certain forward-looking statements, with respect to Green Plains Renewable Energy, Inc. No forward-looking statement is guaranteed, and actual future results may vary materially from the results expressed or implied in our forward-looking statements.