Chapleau's sawmill is changing hands.
Rayonier Advanced Materials has announced a deal to sell its Ontario and Quebec lumber and newsprint facilities - and related assets - to Canadian lumber company GreenFirst Forest Products for about $214-million US, about 85 percent in cash, fifteen percent in commons shares of GreenFirst.
The deal includes RYAM's Chapleau, Cochrane, Hearst, and Kapuskasing lumber mills - plus two in Quebec - as well as its newsprint mill in Kapuskasing, related property, machinery, inventory, permits, and licences - it acquired them when it bought Tembec in 2017.
GreenFirst's also agreed to issue RYAM a "chip offset credit note" of $7.9-million Canadian - which may be set off against amounts owing to GreenFirst for chip purchases, equally over the next five years - while RYAM will retain all the cash generated by the purchased assets - plus all softwood lumber duties - through the closing date - estimated to be about $110-million - and they've reached a 20-year deal for GreenFirst to supply residual fiber for RYAM's High Purity Cellulose, High Yield, and Paperboard operations in Temiscaming, Quebec.
RYAM will maintain full operational control of the facilities until the deal closes, expected in the second half of the year - no earlier than July 31st - as it still requires regulatory approval.