Khosla Gives Kior A 5 Month Lifeline

Kior announced that Khosla personally will inject $25 million into the struggling company and that Khosla Ventures would also inject another $25 million.  The $50 million of funds give Kior 5 more months to make more diesel and gasoline out of pine trees.

Condi Rice can now sleep better for a four more months till the next funding crisis hits the beleaguered company.  Condi and Vinod must have asked dozens of “friends” to invest and no third party wanted any part of the company.  The Province of Alberta which is also heavily invested in Kior also said Nyet to any further investment.

The small amount of stock float that is available to trade got excited because Kior also said they will double down on the plant size in Columbus Mississippi, the backwater town where the alchemy is performed.

My read of the tea leaves is that Kior is making between 20 and 25 gallons of liquid fuel per bone dry ton of wood in the first Columbus plant and that they will report sometime in mid-October their third quarter results that will show about 300,000 gallons of production for the quarter and a loss of $100 per gallon for a loss of $30 million for the third quarter.

Condi will likely drift away from the company soon and the claim will be she has pressing commitments.  Khosla will use the latest investment as a defense that he tried everything to save the company.  In February 2014 the company will have its next funding crisis but they will all say that they have a business plan for a third plant in Columbus or Natchez that will use old rail road ties rather than pine and that they still believe they will yield 92 gallons per bone dry ton of biomass with a twelfth generation catalyst and that they just need a little more time.

The good news for the folks in Columbus who work in the plant is that the company has money to meet payroll for a few more months.