Omaha-based Green Plains said Tuesday it had signed a letter of intent to buy a company in the “food-ingredients industry.”
Green Plains, which primarily is in the ethanol production and marketing business, said the food-industry purchase would be “complementary” to its existing businesses. It didn’t name the ingredients company, saying only that it had entered into a nonbinding letter of intent with the target firm.
The purchase price is expected to be between $225 million and $275 million, Green Plains said in a government filing. The business would be purchased using cash on hand and debt, according to the filing.
Green Plains said “that as part of its growth strategy it plans to opportunistically invest in the food and feed ingredients market.”
The current discussions are only in the preliminary stages, Green Plains said; if it happens, the transaction could be complete in the third quarter of this year.
Green Plains, which had sales last year of around $3 billion, is No. 742 on Fortune Magazine’s list of the 1,000 largest U.S. companies; its chief executive, Todd Becker, has said he wants it to be Omaha’s next Fortune 500-sized firm.
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