Setton Pistachio is officially the winning bidder on a pistachio processing plant in southeastern Tulare County held by Touchstone Pistachios.
Last Friday, U.S. District Judge Kirk Sheriff signed off on the sale to Setton despite objections from two other prospective bidders.
The backstory: Touchstone, owned by Fresno’s Assemi family, allegedly defaulted on more than $705 million in loans to U.S. Bank and Prudential, leading Sheriff to appoint a receiver to manage 50,000 acres of distressed farmland.
- Setton – California’s second-largest pistachio processor – made a stalking horse bid on the facility, and receiver David Stapleton determined that Setton was the only qualified bidder for the plant.
- Pistachio growers Adam Orandi and Bitta Toor also made separate bids for the plant, yet they each needed 150 days to close on the deal, while Setton met the 14-day requirement from Stapleton. Previously, Orandi and Toor had sent a letter of intent to purchase the plant for $50 million before splitting up.
- As previously reported, Stapleton alleged that Darius Assemi also tried to facilitate a $70 million deal through associate Nader Malakan, but Stapleton ultimately never received an offer from them.
The big picture: Sheriff approved the $25 million deal for Setton last Friday.
- Setton will now be able to expand its operations in Terra Bella, where it already operates an 80-acre processing facility.
- Setton made the bid through Zamora Pistachio, LLC, a subsidiary which has a pistachio plant in Yolo County.
Flashback: Sheriff had issued a proposed order to finalize the $25 million sale to Setton earlier last week ahead of Friday’s decision.
- Stapleton issued a reply to that order, saying the path to maximize the value of the assets was to agree to the bid with Setton. U.S. Bank, the primary stakeholder, supported the deal.
- Moving forward with the other two bids, Stapleton said, would have only provided an incremental value of around $500,000 given the lengthy timelines needed to close.
