Green Plains holder Ancora urges company for ‘full sale’ for shareholder value

Ancora Holdings Group, with ownership of nearly 7% of the Company’s outstanding common shares, released the below letter that it has sent to the Company’s Board of Directors . The letter said in part: "Ancora Holdings Group is the second largest shareholder of Green Plains Inc with ownership of nearly 7% of the Company’s outstanding common shares. We want to begin by commending the Board of Directors and management for beginning to transform Green Plains from an ethanol producer to a sustainable biorefinery platform with significant long-term potential. Since Ancora became a shareholder two years ago, Chief Executive Officer Todd Becker has consistently engaged with us to detail the Company’s progress and reiterate his ambitious vision. Mr. Becker’s engagement and the Board’s willingness to enact a subset of our proposed governance enhancements last year have helped Ancora and Green Plains maintain an increasingly positive dialogue…Given the aforementioned risks, and the fact that Green Plains’ underlying value is significantly greater than where its shares are trading today, we are asking the Board to commence a review of value-maximizing strategic alternatives. As detailed in this letter, we believe Green Plains’ initial transformation efforts have made it a highly attractive business for strategic acquirers in the agricultural products and energy sectors…In closing, we want to reiterate our appreciation for the efforts put forth by the Board and management in recent years. We do, however, believe the best path to delivering shareholders an optimal risk-adjusted return is by pursuing a full sale of the Company given the meaningful risks we have identified and the considerable demand for renewable assets by well-funded buyers."