VeraSun subsidiary buys 200 acres of land in South Dakota; VSE, town officials keep silent on plans

In South Dakota, a subsidiary of VeraSun Energy has purchased 200 acres southwest of Tilton for undisclosed purposes. Tilton city officials and VeraSun execs were tight lipped about plans for VeraSun Tilton LLC, which is recorded as the owner of the land.

VeraSun currently operates five plants in South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska and Indiana, and has a capacity of 560 Mgy, with four facilities under construction in Iowa, Minnesota, Ohio and Indiana that will bring capacity to 1 billion gallons. VeraSun and US BioEnergy have announced a merger that would create a 1.5 billion gallons capacity ethanol company.

The deal, in which USBE shareholders will receive approximately $680 million of VeraSun stock, will create the world’s largest ethanol producer, with a planned capacity of 1.6 billion gallons by the end of 2008, based on scheduled plant openings.

The combined companies will benefit from economies of scale in operations and finance, and bring access to VeraSun’s advanced investments and technologies to US BioEnergy’s shareholders.

The combined entity will retain the VeraSun name and trade under VeraSun’s existing NYSE ticker symbol, VSE.

The company also has 150 retail outlets that sell its VE85-branded fuel.

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