Spanish renewable energy firm Abengoa SA has sold five of its Midwestern U.S. ethanol plants for $357 million as the company looks to stave off what would be Spain’s largest-ever corporate bankruptcy, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Green Plains Inc. of Omaha, Neb., which operates 14 plants and has an ethanol-marketing unit, is paying $200 million for Abengoa plants in Mount Vernon, Ind., and Madison, Ill., according to papers filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in St. Louis. Green Plains also topped Houston-based BioUrja Trading LLC, an ethanol-marketing firm that doesn’t have production operations, for Abengoa’s York, Neb., plant with a $37.4 million bid at bankruptcy auction Monday. An affiliate of plant operator KAAPA Ethanol LLC of Minden, Neb., is paying $115 million for Abengoa’s Ravenna, Neb., plant. And ICM Inc. is picking up Abengoa’s shuttered plant in Colwich, Kan., for $3.15 million.
