| PORTLAND, ORE. -- Willamette Industries announced last week that, following an evaluation of its strategic alternatives, its Board has
determined to continue negotiations with Georgia-Pacific Corp. regarding a combination of both companies’ building materials
businesses. The Board also announced that it would reject the $55 per share offer by Weyerhaeuser Company as inadequate and terminate discussions with Weyerhaeuser regarding its offer. The Board strongly urges Willamette shareholders not to tender any shares to Weyerhaeuser.
Chairman of the Board, William Swindells, said, "Following close examination of our options, the Board has decided that a transaction with
Georgia-Pacific will deliver significant value to Willamette and is in the best interests of our shareholders. During our discussions with
Weyerhaeuser and its advisors, we made a good faith effort at establishing a constructive dialogue and provided information regarding synergies,
which we estimate to be in excess of $400 million. However, it became clear to us that Weyerhaeuser would not consider our new information and
were not willing to increase their offer, which we continue to believe is inadequate."
Willamette Industries is an integrated forest products company with 105 plants, located in the U.S., France, Ireland and Mexico. The Company owns
1.7 million acres of forestland in the U.S. and manages it sustainably to produce building materials, composite wood panels, fine paper, office paper
products, and corrugated packaging and grocery bags.
To visit the Willamette web site, please click on the link below:
http://www.wii.com
This eUpdate posting by: Steve Joyce
|
V 1.0
