SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA, US — Liberty Basin, LLC has entered into an agreement to purchase 134 acres, rail loop and grain handling assets at Pacific Ethanol’s Magic Valley Burley, Idaho, US, plant for $10 million in cash from Pacific Ethanol, Inc.

“The sale of real estate and grain handling assets at our Magic Valley facility to Liberty Basin, LLC further demonstrates our commitment to strengthening our balance sheet through monetizing idled assets at a value accretive to shareholders and repurposing the production assets,” said Mike Kandris, chief executive officer of Pacific Ethanol. “Liberty Basin provides a great strategic alliance for managing grain delivery to the renewable fuel plant and to meet animal feed demand in the Idaho markets. Pacific Ethanol will continue to own the ethanol plant with the intent to upgrade product value prior to restarting production.”

Pacific Ethanol will retain the ethanol production facility and terminal on the remaining 25 acres and will enter into certain agreements with Liberty Basin, LLC for delivery of grain to the plant. The sale is expected to close on or before Nov. 30, subject to customary closing conditions.

The Magic Valley dry mill and distillery began operation in 2008 and uses a batch fermentation process designed by Delta-T. All Magic Valley’s products are sold locally by truck serving Idaho and Utah markets for high-protein feed, corn oil and low carbon renewable fuel.

“As we have said in our recently announced strategic realignment toward a business focus in specialty alcohols and essential ingredients, Pacific Ethanol will repurpose or sell its idled plants,” Kandris said. “This sale is a first step toward the objective to add value to our Magic Valley plant. We will continue with our strategic realignment plan and anticipate communicating additional transactions in the future.”