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In light of its joint venture with DSM, Poet does not plan to utilize the loan guarantee it was awarded by the U.S. Department of Energy. Poet received a commitment for a $105 million loan guarantee to finance Project LIBERTY on September 23, 2011. Upon the closing of a recently announced joint venture with DSM, Poet will officially decline the guarantee prior to drawing any funds.

Poet, one of the world's largest ethanol producers, and Royal DSM, a global Life Sciences and Materials Sciences company, announced a joint venture to commercially demonstrate and license cellulosic bio-ethanol, based on their proprietary and complementary technologies. DSM and Poet will each hold a 50% share in the joint venture, which will be headquartered in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The initial capital expenditure by the joint venture in project Liberty will amount to about $250 million. The closing of the joint venture is subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.

Poet, a 25-year-old company, has a production capacity in excess of 1.6 billion gallons of ethanol and 9 billion pounds of animal feed annually from its network of 27 production facilities. Poet also operates a pilot-scale cellulosic bio-ethanol plant, which uses corn cobs, leaves, husk and some stalk as feedstock, and expects to commercialize the process in Emmetsburg, Iowa. For more information on Project LIBERTY and the POET -- DSM Cellulosic Ethanol joint venture, please visit http://www.poetdsm.com/.