State Wants KIOR Assets Liquidated

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – The state of Mississippi is trying to force biofuel maker KiOR into liquidation.

The company filed for Chapter 11 reorganization last year, with plans for controlling shareholder and financier Vinod Khosla to buy what’s left of the company.

But the Mississippi Development Authority says that’s an inappropriate attempt to dump debt while allowing the original owners to keep the company. In court papers filed Dec. 23 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware, MDA asked a judge to convert the case to Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation.

The state agency says remaining value is being drained by continuing losses, and that Khosla is trying to engineer the bankruptcy to take the remaining assets, leaving other creditors with little.

MDA says KiOR’s Mississippi subsidiary, which hasn’t declared bankruptcy, owes it $79 million.