Stoel Rives LLP corporate and forestry attorneys are key advisers in two heavily covered sales by Canada's Brookfield Asset Management, totaling $3.675 billion.
The American Lawyer reported on Monday, June 17, that Stoel Rives, an Am Law 200 firm, was adviser for Brookfield's $2.65 billion sale of timberlands in Oregon and Washington to forestry giant Weyerhaeuser Co. and the $1.025 billion sale of another paper and packaging business to KapStone Paper and Packaging. Am Law Daily cites Ronald Lone, Ronald Moffitt, Christopher Voss, and Gregory Corbin as principal legal advisers on the deals.
The Am Law Daily story also notes that these major deals come on top of the firm's revenues hitting $208 million in 2012 and the opening of a Washington, D.C., office earlier this year.
Read the story in the Am Law Daily (subscription required).
"Brookfield Taps Stoel Rives for Pair of Big Deals" was published by the Am Law Daily, an American Lawyer online publication, June 17, 2013.
The Oregonian also reported on the deal on Monday, noting that Bloomberg News dubbed the timber sale the third-largest forestry acquisition in North American history. The news story points out that Stoel Rives represented Brookfield in acquiring the timberland and paper operation, then a single company, and restructuring and selling both.
"We don't see transactions of this size in Oregon and Washington all that frequently," Stoel Rives attorney Greg D. Corbin told reporter Elliot Njus. "What this shows is a strong, healthy interest in timberland ownership which is tied to what we're seeing in the economic recovery, both in the housing market and domestic demand and overseas exports."
The deal, expected to close in July, increases the Pacific Northwest holdings of Weyerhaeuser by one-third, company representatives said. Meanwhile, KapStone picks up a Longview, Wash., paper mill plus seven paper-and-cardboard plants in the Northwest.
"This is a one-of-a-kind acquisition," Tom Gideon, Weyerhaeuser's vice president for timberland, was quoted as saying in a conference call for investors and analysts. "It is highly unlikely that the opportunity to acquire high-value and high-quality timberland of this magnitude in the Pacific Northwest will reappear again."
Read the full story at The Oregonian/OregonLive.com website. "Weyerhaeuser to pay $2.65 billion for Oregon, Washington timberlands" was published by The Oregonian/OregonLive.com, June 17, 2013.