Ohio-based company, The Andersons, Inc., will aquire an ethanol production facility in Denison, Iowa from Amaizing Energy Denison LLC and Amaizing Energy Holding Company, LLC. The transaction, which remains subject to several contingencies, is anticipated to close in the second quarter.
If acquired, the plant would be owned by The Andersons Denison Ethanol LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Andersons, Inc. The operations consist of an ethanol facility with an adjacent 2.7 million bushel grain terminal, both with direct access to two Class 1 railroads in Iowa.
“As our first ethanol plant west of the Mississippi, this facility provides us with geographic diversity into some of the best corn ground in the country,” says Neill McKinstray, President, Ethanol Group. “This purchase enables us to expand our ethanol production, marketing and services into a new region providing arbitrage and risk management opportunities with the three existing plants we manage while leveraging existing administrative staff to a fourth plant. With much of the same technology in all four plants, we expect to bring additional efficiencies to drive down our cost per gallon, and maximize returns to shareholders as we have successfully demonstrated during the past five years.”
CEO Mike Anderson, adds, “This is a well-respected, well-run organization that brings with it a solid customer base in a geographic area that we are looking forward to serving. This ethanol facility enables us to offer our grain marketing expertise and the associated services to grain producers in Iowa and fits well with our existing presence as an investor in the Iowa Northern Railway Company and our merchandising relationship with Lansing Trade Group.”
Sam Cogdill, Chairman and CEO of Amaizing Energy, says the proposed sale will address the liquidity concerns of Amaizing Energy’s membership, while retaining the economic benefits the Denison facility has in the local area.
“Our investors were committed to Amaizing Energy to earn a good return on their investment and to further local economic development and we feel great about having met both of those goals,” said Cogdill. “Placing Amaizing Energy on the market while it was a profitable operation has allowed it to reach a fair deal with a great company who we know will operate our plant properly.”
“I think more of that will happen when we know more about who controls the Senate and the House, and who’s the president and where the EPA is on all this after November,” said Bill Lapp of 
“If you took a poll of our members, and we may well do that at our Commodity Classic next week, I would say that they view the RFS as more important than the farm bill,” said 
Corn growers are now gathering this week in Nashville for the Commodity Classic, and NCGA president Garry Niemeyer of Illinois says there is a lot of truth in the idea that the RFS is more important to them than the farm bill. “The Renewable Fuel Standard is really what sets the basis for where we are with ethanol,” said Niemeyer. “We’ve worked very hard to make sure that we have a very good Renewable Fuel Standard bill and it is a road map for our future with ethanol.”
Brazil is reportedly planning to pump $38 billion into its ethanol sector to help increase production. 
The 
This edition of “The Ethanol Report” offers a wrap-up with some of the highlights from the conference, featuring comments from keynote speakers Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, futurist Dr. James Canton, political commentators Karl Rove and Robert Gibbs, and RFA president and CEO Bob Dinneen.