Analyst: KiOR Columbus Plant May End up Sold as Scrap

BioRefineries/Renewable Fuel Production, Business News/Analysis, Funding/Financing/Investing, Mississippi, Opinions

November 21, 2014

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by Jack Weatherly (Mississippi Business Journal) Finding a buyer for the idled KiOR biofuels plant at Columbus would be a tough sell, according to Pavel Molchanov, an equity analyst who had covered Pasadena, Texas-based KiOR Inc. until it filed for bankruptcy protection on Nov. 9.
The state will be fortunate to recoup 10 percent to 15 percent of the $69.4 million balance left in a $75 million no-interest loan it made for the plant at Columbus, said Molchanov, who is employed by Raymond James and Associates, which is headquartered in St. Petersburg, Florida.
The Chapter 11 petition filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware left out the plant, which never produced gasoline or diesel fuel in the quantity and quality needed to make a success of the venture.
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Tim Climer, executive director of the Tate County Economic Development Foundation, said Tuesday that the 85,000-square-foot building has drawn a number of prospects, but no takers yet.
The foundation, the MDA and Entergy are marketing the facility on the website, MemphisMetro.Ms.org. READ MORE and MORE / MORE (The Clarion Ledger) and MORE (WKRG.com) and MORE (Washington Times) and MORE (Biomass Magazine) and MORE (FuelFix)

Excerpt from WKRG.com: The state of Mississippi is trying to force biofuel maker KiOR into liquidation.
The company filed for Chapter 11 reorganization last year, with plans for controlling shareholder and financier Vinod Khosla to buy what’s left of the company.
But the Mississippi Development Authority says that’s an inappropriate attempt to dump debt while allowing the original owners to keep the company. In court papers filed Dec. 23 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware, MDA asked a judge to convert the case to Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation.
The state agency says remaining value is being drained by continuing losses, and that Khosla is trying to engineer the bankruptcy to take the remaining assets, leaving other creditors with little. READ MORE

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