3 Companies Bid on Agriprocessors at Auction

CEDAR RAPIDS, IA — Three holding companies have submitted bids to buy various parts of Postville’s embattled kosher meat plant, a spokesman for the trustee said today.

But none of the bidders asked for the same package of equipment and assets, attorney Dan Childers said at the bankruptcy auction for Agriprocessors, Inc. Bidders are now meeting in groups to revise their proposals.

“We believe that all three bidders here today are financially qualified to bid,” Childers told the bidders in U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

The first bids ranged from $1 million to $9 million, Childers said. But the proposals – which seek to buy different parts of the company – make an apples-to-apples comparison difficult, Childers said.

The three bidders are:

— T5 Equity Partners, LLC, a Las Vegas-based investment firm that specializes in venture capital and private equity investments. The firm often invests in companies in financial distress or bankruptcy. The company also owns the Mall of America.
— Natural Source Holdings. A company that identifies itself online as Natural Sources, LLC, describes itself as a solar and wind energy firm that also offers “pure meats.”
— Kosher Standards, LLC, a kosher meat company. A Web site for the company could not immediately be found.

Any deal reached today will go to U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Paul Kilburg for his approval on Tuesday.

The final buyer must also prove to the U.S. Attorney that they have no financial connection to the Rubashkin family, the former owners now snared in a federal investigation.

Agriprocessors has suffered significant financial hardship since an immigration raid last May that led to the arrest of nearly 400 workers, mostly from Mexico and Guatemala. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November as debts to its creditors mounted.

The plant, along with former executive Sholom Rubashkin and several managers, face nearly 100 federal charges for allegedly hiring illegal immigrants and defrauding a bank. Rubashkin, his father Aaron and several human resources also are charged with more than 9,000 state-level child labor violations.