Mercer International has made an offer to purchase common shares of Fibrek Inc. for $1.30 per share. The friendly take-over offer represents a 30% premium over the hostile bid by Resolute Forest Products which expires Feb. 13.
Mercer International has made an offer to purchase common shares of Fibrek Inc. for $1.30 per share. The friendly take-over offer represents a 30% premium over the hostile bid by Resolute Forest Products which expires Feb. 13.
Fibrek’s board of directors recommends that shareholders tender their shares to the Mercer offer. With 130 million shares outstanding, the Mercer deal would value the company at about $170-million.
The Mercer deal was announced a day after Quebec securities regulators quashed Fibrek’s poison-pill defence against the Resolute bid.
“We had a responsibility to our shareholders to pursue alternative options in their best interests and that is exactly what we have done in supporting this offer from Mercer, a leader in the industry who is committed to market pulp,” stated Pierre Gabriel Cote, president and CEO of Fibrek.
“There are significant similarities between Fibrek and Mercer given that we are both pulp producers with a culture of operational excellence,” concluded Cote.
Fibrek produces virgin NBSK and recycled kraft pulp. The company operates three mills located in Saint-Felicien, Quebec, Fairmont, West Virginia, and in
Menominee, Michigan with a combined annual production capacity of 760,000 tonnes. Mercer International operates three NBSK pulp mills in British Columbia (Zellstoff Celgar) and Germany with a consolidated annual production capacity of approximately 1.5 million ADMT.
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