Rayonier Advanced Materials Announces Strategic Sale Of Its Lumber And Newsprint Businesses To GreenFirst Forest Products For Approximately $214 Million
Rayonier Advanced Materials Inc. and GreenFirst Forest Products Inc. announced that the parties have entered into a binding asset purchase agreement pursuant to which RYAM has agreed to sell all of its lumber and newsprint facilities and related assets located in Ontario and Québec to GreenFirst for an expected purchase price of approximately US$214 million including inventory on hand at the time of closing which is payable approximately 85% in cash, 15% common shares of the capital of GreenFirst. In addition, a chip offset credit note will be issued to RYAM by GreenFirst in the amount of CDN$7.9 million, which may be set off against amounts owing to GreenFirst for chip purchases, equally over the next 5 years. Notably, RYAM will retain all of the cash generated by the Purchased Assets plus all softwood lumber duties, including earned interest on the duties, paid to the U.S. Department of Commerce through the closing date. RYAM estimates the duties to be approximately $110 million at the time of closing. The Purchased Assets: *include six lumber mills which are located in Chapleau, Cochrane, Hearst and Kapuskasing in Ontario and in Béarn and La Sarre in Québec as well as one newsprint mill located in Kapuskasing, Ontario. *produced 604 million board feet in 2020 with a combined nameplate capacity of 755 million board feet and are capable of producing a wide range of forest products used in residential and commercial construction, including dimensional lumber, wood chips and by-products. *include the lumber and newsprint mills as well as certain real property, machinery, inventory, permits, licenses and other related assets. *exclude accounts receivable and accounts payable.