Greenlight, Third Point Try To Save Ethanol Bet

David Einhorn and Daniel Loeb hope to turn BioFuel Energy around.

Scientists Try Algae 'Alchemy' To Grow Oil In Paddies

Algae is contained in a beaker at the laboratory of Makoto Watanabe, professor of the graduate school of Life and Environmental Sciences at University of Tsukuba, in Tsukuba City, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan, on Tuesday, April 20, 2010. As Japan’s rice paddy fields turn fallow and its farmers die off, a new army of workers is getting ready to make the countryside fertile once again. This time the crop is biofuel, and the laborers are microalgae. At least 75 developers globally are studying algae, which has the potential to generate more energy per hectare than any other source of biofuel, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The technology has attracted the U.S. Department of Energy and big oil including Exxon Mobil Corp, which plans to spend as much as $600 million on research over five years. Photographer: Kimimasa Mayama/Bloomberg *** Local Caption *** Makoto Watanabe

Kimimsa Mayama/Bloomberg

BioFuel Energy has not exactly been a winner for David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital and Daniel Loeb’s Third Point Management since they bought large stakes in the ethanol maker’s IPO in June 2007. The stock is down more than 80 percent since then, and now the two hedge fund managers are trying to help save the company.

Last week they teamed up to provide the company with about $19.4 million in a six-month bridge loan. The loan pays interest at a rate of 12.5 percent. If the loan is not paid off in full by the maturity date, the interest rate will bump up to 14.5 percent. The hope is that enough investors will then buy into a subsequent rights offering to purchase convertible preferred stock of the company, whose proceeds will be used to repay the bridge loan and BioFuel’s subordinated debt and to make certain other payments — including more than $2.8 million to Cargill, with which BioFuel has a business relationship.

Neither Loeb nor Einhorn would comment. However, this investment has been a disaster for the two hedge funds since they bought a combined 4.25 million shares in the company’s IPO for $10.50 apiece. At the time, Greenlight held 36.5 percent of the stock’s voting power, and Third Point 18.2 percent. Today, Greenlight owns 19.6 percent of the shares and Third Point controls 17.8 percent. The shares are currently trading at a puny $2 a pop.

Both fund managers were heavily involved with BioFuel when it was still private. As early as May 2006, Einhorn and Loeb both became directors of the company. There was a lot of hope then. Earlier that year, President Bush had set the goal of reducing Middle East oil imports by 75 percent and replacing oil with renewable fuels like ethanol. But ethanol’s hype was short-lived — and the company has never made a profit in a full year.

Related