Aventine CFO resigns after year of liquidity struggles

In Illinois, Aventine Renewable Energy Holdings announced the resignation of its CFO, Ajay Sabherwal, without offering details as to the extent that the key management change was related to the company’s corn hedging strategies in the past year, or a $21.6 million impairment charge last year relating to investment in auction-rate securities.

Aventine Renewable Energy announced a quarterly loss of $10.8 million last May after recording the  impairment charge for a short-term investment in auction-rate securities that was reclassified as long-term. Last August, with the liquidation of its auction rate securities and $42 million in cash flow from operations, the company’s liquidity had improved substantially and it had cash on hand to complete more than $190 million in planned construction.

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