Xethanol announces sale of Georgia, North Carolina facilities

Company stock may be delisted from AMEX following setbacks in cellulosic ethanol plans

By Sarah Smith


Shares of Xethanol Corp. fell more than 10 percent upon news that the renewable energy company was scrapping plans to develop two proposed cellulosic ethanol facilities and was losing money on its only operational plant in Iowa. The embattled company may be in jeopardy of being delisted from the American Stock Exchange, according to exchange rules.

Xethanol announced at its annual shareholder meeting Jan. 22 that it would sell the site it purchased two years ago in Augusta, Ga., to build corn-based and cellulosic ethanol facilities. When it announced the purchase of the former Pfizer Inc., pharmaceutical plant, it said the 35 MMgy cellulosic plant would come on line in 2007. Production hadn't begun when Xethanol announced that the plant, which would also accommodate some corn-based feedstock, would expand capacity to 50 MMgy. The company hasn't produced any ethanol on the site.

Xethanol’s U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing also indicated that plans for a similar facility in Spring Hope, N.C., would be scrapped to save additional money. The company reported that it had lost $1.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2007. A small corn-based ethanol plant in Blairstown, Iowa, "is running at approximately 5.6 [MMgy] ... and is operating at a loss,” the shareholder report stated.