Aventine Completes Acquisition of Canton, Illinois Ethanol Plant

PEKIN, Ill., -- Aventine Renewable Energy Holdings, Inc.is pleased to announce that it has completed the acquisition of an ethanol plant from New CIE Energy Opco, LLC, d/b/a Riverland Biofuels.

On August 6, 2010, the Company and Riverland entered into an Asset Purchase Agreement pursuant to which the Company acquired substantially all of the assets, and assumed specified liabilities, of Riverland for a purchase price of $16.5 million. The assets comprised an ethanol production facility located in Canton, Illinois, and included real property at the plant site as well as surrounding parcels. The acquisition closed on August 6, 2010. We intend for the Canton facility to be transferred to a newly-formed wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company.

Tom Manuel, CEO of Aventine said: "This is an exciting opportunity to acquire a 38 million gallon facility at a favorable price. When operational, we will leverage the proximity of the Canton facility to our Pekin, Illinois facilities to gain marketing and operational synergies."

About Aventine

Aventine is a leading producer of ethanol. Through our production facilities, we market and distribute ethanol to many of the leading energy companies in the U.S. In addition to producing ethanol, our facilities also produce several co-products including: corn gluten feed and meal, corn germ, condensed corn distillers solubles, dried distillers grain with solubles, wet distiller's grain with solubles, carbon dioxide and brewers' yeast.

Forward Looking Statements

Certain information included in this press release may be deemed to be "forward looking statements" within the meaning of section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, included in this press release, are forward looking statements. Any forward looking statements are not guarantees of Aventine's future performance and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, developments and business decisions to differ materially from those contemplated by such forward looking statements. Aventine disclaims any duty to update any forward looking statements. Some of the factors that may cause Aventine's actual results, developments and business decisions to differ materially from those contemplated by such forward looking statements include the following:

-- The risk that any synergies from the Canton acquisition may not be
realized or may take longer to realize than expected;
-- Unexpected costs or unexpected liabilities that may arise from the
Canton acquisition;
-- Our ability to obtain and maintain normal terms with vendors and service
providers;
-- Our estimates of allowed general unsecured claims, unliquidated and
contingent claims and estimations of future distributions of securities
and allocations of securities among various categories of claim holders;
-- Our ability to maintain contracts that are critical to our operations;
-- Our ability to attract and retain customers;
-- Our ability to fund and execute our business plan and any ethanol plant
expansion projects;
-- Our ability to receive or renew permits to construct or commence
operations of our proposed capacity additions in a timely manner, or at
all;
-- Laws, tariffs, trade or other controls or enforcement practices
applicable to our operations;
-- Changes in weather and general economic conditions;
-- Overcapacity within the ethanol, biodiesel and petroleum refining
industries;
-- Availability and costs of products and raw materials, particularly corn,
coal and natural gas and the subsequent impact on margins;
-- Our ability to raise additional capital and secure additional financing,
and our ability to service our debt or comply with our debt covenants;
-- Our ability to attract, motivate and retain key employees;
-- Liability resulting from actual or potential future litigation; and
-- Plant shutdowns or disruptions.

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SOURCE: Aventine Renewable Energy Holdings, Inc.