Configure Partners, LLC (Configure), a leading middle market investment bank, completes the sale of the operating assets of Texas Pellets, Inc. and German Pellets Texas, LLC (collectively, "Texas Pellets"), a wood biomass pellet manufacturer.
Graanul Invest, one of the largest pellet producers in Europe, acquired the assets for $63 million cash plus additional consideration for working capital assets and assumed liabilities. The final price represented a nearly 50% increase from the stalking horse bid.
Texas Pellets operated a 500,000 metric ton nameplate manufacturing facility in Woodville, Texas and a pellet storage facility and shipping terminal in Port Arthur, Texas, otherwise known as "POPA." The company was an affiliate of German Pellets GmbH and related companies.
Texas Pellets filed Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in 2016, however, while operating in Chapter 11, the company suffered two major casualty events. In early 2017, the company experienced a fire on its ship loader and then in late spring 2017, a fire broke out inside one of the company's storage silos, eventually causing the silo to collapse. Over much of the next two years, Texas Pellets was engaged in rebuilding POPA into a leading storage and ship loading facility that incorporated the latest developments in operations and safety.
