Benson Hill Acquires ZFS Creston For $102 Mln - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Food tech company Benson Hill, Inc. (BHIL) announced Tuesday the acquisition of ZFS Creston, LLC, an established food grade white flake and soy flour manufacturing operation in southwest Iowa, for approximately $102 million primarily financed through a new debt facility.

The investment fulfills a final step in Benson Hill's ability to convert its proprietary soybeans into value-added soy protein ingredients for the underserved human and pet food categories.

Benson Hill said the acquisition of ZFS Creston, combined with its proprietary Ultra-High Protein soybean varieties, positions it to deliver a portfolio of improved ingredients as an innovative unlock to bottlenecks in the rapidly growing but capacity-constrained plant-based movement.

The exploding demand for soy-based protein ingredients is outpacing supply, suggesting the need to build additional concentrate and isolate processing facilities.

In connection with the transaction, Benson Hill secured a $100 million committed debt facility, with the potential to access an incremental $20 million.

The Company used $80 million of this new facility to finance the purchase price of the Creston acquisition with the remaining amount of the purchase price sourced from cash on hand and approximately $5 million of seller financing.

The Creston soy processing facility and food ingredients business is expected to contribute positive Adjusted EBITDA, and will increase Benson Hill's Ingredients segment revenue.