Aventine Acquires Riverland Biofuels Ethanol Plant

Aventine Renewable Energy Holdings, Inc. (the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has completed the acquisition of an ethanol plant from New CIE Energy Opco, LLC, d/b/a Riverland Biofuels.

On August 6, 2010, the Company and Riverland entered into an Asset Purchase Agreement pursuant to which the Company acquired substantially all of the assets, and assumed specified liabilities, of Riverland for a purchase price of $16.5 million. The assets comprised an ethanol production facility located in Canton, Illinois, and included real property at the plant site as well as surrounding parcels. The acquisition closed on August 6, 2010. We intend for the Canton facility to be transferred to a newly-formed wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company.

Tom Manuel, CEO of Aventine said: "This is an exciting opportunity to acquire a 38 million gallon facility at a favorable price. When operational, we will leverage the proximity of the Canton facility to our Pekin, Illinois facilities to gain marketing and operational synergies."

Source : Press Release