Exhibit 99 The Energy Forum N Volume XIlI, Issue I January 2017 INSIDE THIS EDITION End of the Year Recap 1-2 Forward Looking Statements 1 Financial Review 2 Lefovers 3 Tax Reminder 3 Corn Ownership 3 New Employee 4 UNIT TRADING July 2016: 50 Units @ $650/Unit August 2016: 25 Units @ $650/Unit 25 Units @ $500/UnitSeptember 2016: No Sales October 2016: No SalesNovember 2016: No SalesDecember 2016: No Sales ANNUAL MEETING Monday, February 27, 2017 6:30 pm Holiday Inn Conference Center2609 University Boulevard Ames, Iowa END OF THE YEAR RECAP So the calendar is telling me we have made anotherlap around the sun and it is the tme of the yearwe can look back for a moment on what we havedone and outline a litle about where we can go inthe future. This is almost my fourth year here andwe have built a significantly different facility, layingthe groundwork for some very interestng futuredevelopments. For the last several years I have shared with you thatwe have been developing a series of technology,which we have branded PureStream™, a conceptwhere we use physical separaton techniques (allcommercial today, but ofen from other industries)to break the bushel into its component parts. It iscommercially evident that each component of abushel of corn, starch, protein, oil and fiber, carriesmore value individually than in a mixture but it isvery difficult to do this in a dry grind plant. The firststep of a dry grind plant is smashing the kernel ina hammer mill; fine separaton afer that step isdifficult. So atacking this problem, we first needed tounify the partcle size distributon of our mash.Each partcle, afer being smashed in a hammermill, is a vastly different size and shape so in 2013we installed an SMT™, which uses a mill to grindlarger pieces of the kernel into uniform sizes. Thissmoothed down the swings in producton allowingmore ethanol producton in 2014 when margins By Eric Hakmiller, President and CEO skyrocketed and paid for itself in about fourmonths. The next target was to free up more corn oil. Cornoil is the most valuable component of corn tradingat $0.25-$0.30 per pound and makes up about 4percent of the corn kernel. Lincolnway Energy hadbeen an early pioneer of oil centrifugaton but wehad been caught up in a messy patent litgatonfor years. This limited our ability to invest in thistechnology and locked us in to producton ratesat the botom end of the industry. As we movedthrough 2014, the tdes turned on the litgatonand eventually the judge found in our favor. Thisallowed us to move on corn oil in two fronts, weadded centrifugaton and we added residencetme. Today, we find ourselves on the other end of theindustry performance curve. In the last quarter(Q1 FY 17), we extracted more than 2300 tons ofcorn oil. This is over double the amount we wereextractng three years ago. Oil that we do notextract ends up sold in DDGS at closer to $0.06per pound so most of this oil adds to our botomline. At current rates and prices, corn oil is nowadding more than $500,000 to our net incomeeach month. The third phase of our progress was our mostaudacious. We believed that by adding more contnued on page 2 FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS Some of the informaton in this newsleter may contain forward looking statements that express LincolnwayEnergy’s current beliefs, projectons and predictons about future results or events, such as statements with respect Lincolnway Energy, LLC 59511 W. Lincoln HighwayNevada, Iowa 50201 Office: 515-232-1010Fax: 515-663-9335 to financial results and conditon; future trends in the industry or in business, revenues or income; litgaton orregulatory maters; business and operatng plans and strategies; compettve positon; and opportunites that may beavailable to Lincolnway Energy. Forward looking statements are necessarily subjectve in nature and are made basedon numerous and varied estmates, projectons, beliefs, strategies and assumptons, and are subject to numerousrisks and uncertaintes. Forward looking statements are not guarantees of future results, performance or businessor operatng conditons, and no one should place undue reliance on any forward looking statements because actual www.lincolnwayenergy.com results, performance or conditons could be materially different.
Volume XIlI, Issue I End of the Year Recap contnued from page 1 grinding and washing we would be able to hyper concentrate the starches andsugars in a way that would increase producton and yields (gallons per bushelof corn). To succeed here we needed more than new equipment but a radicalrethinking of operaton to increase the cleanliness and mechanical operatonof the plant. We brought in operatonal talent last year and have made solidprogress on this phase since then. We are producing over 180,000 gallons ofethanol per operatng day in Q1 FY17 (a 9 percent improvement in the lastthree years) and have moved yields up to the high 2.80s. We are not yet wherewe think we can go with the investments we have made but we are getngcloser to being a top quartle plant than we have in the past. From here, we have many choices on where to go next. We have built astrong foundaton that gives us the ability to go in several directons. We have FINANCIAL REVIEW January 2017 been able to build these optons without leveraging our balance sheet. Wehave built a strong, engineering focused producton staff who have a provenability to think outside the box. We have lined ourselves out in tme to dealwith the twists and turns our industry faces as producton begins to climbabove the mythical blend wall. We have positoned ourselves to be a strong,independent producer of ethanol, a solid bid for corn in the local market andserious innovator in our industry. We have done this while paying a dividendeach year. As a management team, we feel we are on the brink of unlockingthe value of the kernel. It has been a hard-fought journey to get to where we are today and wecontnue to appreciate your support. Thank you and hope everyone has avery good new year. By Kris Strum, Director of Finance Lincolnway Energy, LLC ended the 2016 fiscal year with a $1.6 million netloss, a large porton of which is atributed to the write down of the remainingassets of the coal boiler. LWE switched to a natural gas boiler in Novemberof2014. Management, in consultaton with our accountants, made thedecision to repurpose the buildings and some of the equipment and revaluethe remaining assets. What cannot be reused by the company will be sold orscrapped. Revenues decreased from fiscal year 2015 by approximately 13 percent dueto various market factors, not the least of which was lower prices of corn. Asthe price of corn decreases, prices of ethanol and DDGS tend to follow suit. Cost of goods sold for 2016 were 10 percent beter than the previous yearwith lower corn and natural gas prices as well as lower depreciaton resultngfrom the fact that the plant reached it’s 10-year useful life and a majority ofthe original assets are now fully depreciated. During fiscal year 2016, LWE spent approximately $4.9 million on capitalimprovements, the largest project being the completon of our new grainbin. The new bin allows us to take advantage of favorable market prices andhas evened out corn receiving traffic. This past fall we were able to provideextended hours during harvest. The grain room has not shut down due to lackof storage space since the bin was in operaton. This is part of our ongoingdesire to be a premier destnaton for corn deliveries so we can increasefarmer direct purchases. Comparison of Fiscal Years Ended September 30, 2016 and 2015 A $45 per share distributon totaling $1.9 million was paid to investors infiscal year 2016. Working capital was approximately $5.3 million at the end ofSeptember and our book value per share was $892. A complete SEC 10K report for the year ended September 30, 2016, can befound on a link on the Lincolnway Energy website under the heading Investorsand SEC Financial Report. LWE Net Income $20,000,000 $15,000,000 $10,000,000 $5,000,000 $ $(5,000,000) $(10,000,000) 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 Net Income Statements of Operatons Data: 2016 2015 LWE Book Value Per Share Revenues $ 101,141,768 $ 115,927,769 $1,600 Cost of Goods Sold 99,340,675 110,311,445 Gross Profit 1,801,093 5,616,324 $1,400 General and Admin. ExpensesOperatng Income (loss) 3,379,164 2,952,005 (1,578,071) 2,664,319 $1,200 Other Income (loss) (62,325) (12,755) $1,000 Net Income $ (1,640,396) $ 2,651,564 $800 Balance Sheet Data: 2016 2015 $600 Working CapitalNet Property Plant and Equipment $ 5,265,892 $ 3,767,450 34,929,124 37,638,404 $400 Total Assets 46,085,438 49,065,346 $200 Long-Term ObligatonsMember’s Equity Book Value Per Member Unit 3,542,593 1,218,312 37,493,790 41,026,391 $ 892 $ 976 $ 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 Book Value Per Share 2
Volume XIlI, Issue I January 2017 LEFTOVERS By Blair Picard, Commercial Manager Unlike the rest of my family, I am gazing at the post-Christmas/New Year’splate of turkey, bowl of dressing and pan of peppermint ice cream cake withhappiness in my heart. These noble, and stll delicious, lefovers will stand mein good stead in the week - singular I hope - ahead. At Lincolnway Energy, we also have significant lefovers at the end of ourethanol producton process. While ethanol consttutes an 80 percent majorityof our product sales value, we garner an additonal 15 percent from our DDGSanimal feed sales and 5 percent from corn oil sales. Given the razor thinmargins we generally face, the incremental value we can obtain from thesebyproducts is crucial to our profitability. DDGS are the solids that remain afer we break out the carbohydrate portonof the corn kernel and turn it into ethanol. While corn is mostly carbohydrates,there is also protein, fiber and fat in that kernel that cannot be converted intoethanol. These lefover components are a valuable source of protein, energyand nutrients for catle, poultry and hogs. Our industry produces a lot of DDGS, over 30 million standard tons annually,making it second only to soybean meal as a protein feedstuff for our herdsand flocks. Given its protein and fiber profile, most of our DDGS flow intocatle and swine ratons. The US consumes roughly two-thirds of its DDGSproducton domestcally with the remaining third going for export. As the marginal consumer, the export market has been key in setng DDGSprices. Half of our exports used to move to China. As a relatvely cheap feedsubsttute for soybean meal and/or corn, DDGS were regularly selling for over$200 per short ton, or 125 percent of the value of corn, on the back of thisChinese demand only two years ago. But the impositon of 60 to 65 percenttariffs by the Chinese government in 2016 has cratered prices to under $100per short ton or 80 percent of the value of corn. The tariff was insttuted toprotect internal Chinese corn prices afer successive big crops and a largestocks build in China. The US Grains Council is spearheading an acton againstthe tariff, but untl the Chinese corn producton trend abates, we expect litlefavorable progress. The price collapse has had a significant impact on LWE’s margins, reducingthe “typical” margin for a given level of ethanol demand by 20 percent. Whilethis impact is largely beyond the control of LWE, we have moved to improvenetbacks by moving out of rail export markets and into local truck markets. Weare saving money by reducing our railcar fleet. But ultmately, taking 4 milliontons of demand out of a 30 million ton market will take years to remedy. Corn oil has a more palatable story. LWE was an early adopter of separatngcorn oil out of the product streams. While the oil is degraded during the ethanolmaking process rendering it unsuitable for human consumpton, its propertesmake it an excellent biodiesel feedstock and animal feed. With the growth ofthe biodiesel market fueled by the Renewable Fuel Standard legislaton andour close proximity to biodiesel plants in Mason City and Newton, we haveenjoyed a growing corn oil demand from biodiesel producers such as REG inAmes. setbacks, we have moved ahead of the crowd in our byproducts program.While ethanol remains our main course, our atenton to our lefovers has paidsignificant dividends. TAX REMINDER In mid-to-late February, investors will receive a K-1 for their porton of LWE’staxable income for the period January 1 - December 31, 2016. This informatonwill need to be included in your 2016 tax returns. Just a reminder that thedistributons paid during September 2016 are not taxable but rather, it is theprofits of the company that are taxable. As a partnership, each owner of unitsis responsible for their share of taxes on these profits. LWE cannot give out taxadvice, please contact your tax professional if you need assistance. CORN OWNERSHIP By Rick Ogle, Grain Buyer This was the first harvest season where we had the new storage bin inoperaton and we saw strong benefits and good returns from this additon. The“tn bin” is a 730,000 Brock bin, which we had ready for corn in August of 2016.This added to our previously installed 500,000 bushels of space for a total of 1.230 million bushels or 20 days of operatng space. In the past, we alwayssuffered in buying corn at our facility, as we were either full or empty at anygiven tme. This year we were able to remain open for the entre harvest andeven were able to do extended hours to make our locaton a more convenientdelivery point. This enabled us to buy 20,000 to 30,000 “spot” or uncontractedbushels each day. This corn is always the least expensive as we pay our bidprice for the corn and is corn that was going to go somewhere that day, if notus then a local co-op. Traditonally, the first quarter is the best quarter for us to buy corn. The secondquarter is the worst. This is because once corn finds a home in this area it isdifficult for us to get it to move in our directon untl the spring. We boughtroughly the same bushels in Fiscal Year 2017 Q1 as Fiscal Year 2016 Q1, but amuch higher percentage came directly from the farm. During harvest, a farmerhas to find a home for his grain so if we had not had the space we would havehad to buy the same corn later from a reseller. These bushels are bushels wewould not have been able to buy in the past, as we did not have the storageto hold them. Our delivery percentages skewed heavier to the farmer, which is what wewant during harvest. We bought a full 37 percent more corn directly from thefarm, or over 500,000 bushels in 2017. It is always beter to buy direct fromthe source and this bin allowed us to do so this year and will contnue to paydividends going into the future. Farmer Delivery 70% 60% 57% 46% Corn oil sells for over $500 per short ton versus a DDGS value under $100 pershort ton. The oil winds up in the DDGS unless you can coax it out. You canimagine that our producton team has been hard at work trying to make morelefover corn oil and less lefover DDGS. Between their excellent work on someof our original equipment and some very effectve technology investments weare making more corn oil and less DDGS. We must call corn oil our favoritelefover now. Our ability to effectvely market and optmize our DDGS and corn oil pricing hasbeen a key factor in improving our profitability. Despite the politcally driven 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% October 34% 35% 35% 10% November December FY16 Q1 FY17 Q1 3
WELCOME MIKE NEPPLE My name is Mike Nepple and I am the new Process Engineer at Lincolnway Energy. I am thrilled to be a member of the teamand excited about the opportunites here at Lincolnway Energy. I grew up on a small farm outside Carroll, Iowa. I went to school in Ames at Iowa State and graduated with a ChemicalEngineering degree. Out of college, I had an engineering internship with Bunge in Council Bluffs, Iowa, at their soybean facility.Afer the internship, I went to Penford Products in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where I was the process engineer in the wet milldepartment for five years. I am delighted to be closer to my family and look forward to my future here at Lincolnway Energy. Lincolnway Energy, LLC 59511 W. Lincoln HighwayNevada, Iowa 50201 Volume XIlI, Issue I January 2017 COME JOIN US ON THE WEB! If you haven’t already, please give us your e-mail address. This way you can receive the full color newsleter via e-mail and we can save on postage. E-mail your request to us at info@lincolnwayenergy.com. Find us on Linked https://www.linkedin.com/company/lincolnway-energy 4