Timberland Investment

Weyerhaeuser Company (NYSE: WY) today announced the completion of the sale of its timberlands and manufacturing business in Uruguay to a consortium led by BTG Pactual's Timberland Investment Group (TIG) for $402.5 million in cash. The company expects it will incur minimal taxes in conjunction with the sale.

The transaction includes over 300,000 acres (120,000 hectares) of timberlands in northeastern and north central Uruguay, as well as a plywood and veneer manufacturing facility, a cogeneration facility, and a seedling nursery.

UPM commenced discussions with the Government of Uruguay on the development of logistics infrastructure. Discussions will include railroad and roads, which currently are a critical challenge to establish large scale industrial operation in the Uruguayan inland and to connect it to a deep sea port.

"Uruguay could accommodate a third state-of-art pulp mill with proven environmental performance, if the logistics infrastructure would be rebuilt to support large scale export-oriented businesses. If these challenges can be solved in the coming few years, Uruguay could be a competitive alternative for addressing UPM's pulp market opportunities in the 2020's," says Jaakko Sarantola, UPM's Senior Vice President, Uruguay Development.

UPM estimates that healthy fibre demand growth will continue in the long term. By end of 2020's the world demand for chemical pulp is expected to grow by approximately 20 million tonnes. Some 24 million tonnes of capacity has been closed during the last 15 years and UPM expects the closures to continue at similar pace creating opportunity for new, more competitive capacity.

"In a short period of time Uruguay has created necessary conditions and successfully developed its pulp industry into an export business that has generated positive impacts to the country in many ways. UPM has been part of Uruguayan development for 25 years. We have consistently increased our plantation base in Uruguay and we are well-prepared to supply the wood for the third pulp mill in Uruguay”, Sarantola concludes.

Weyerhaeuser Company (NYSE: WY) today announced an agreement to sell its timberlands and manufacturing business in Uruguay to a consortium led by BTG Pactual's Timberland Investment Group (TIG), including other long-term institutional investors, for $402.5 million in cash. The company anticipates it will incur minimal taxes in conjunction with the transaction.

The transaction includes over 300,000 acres (120,000 hectares) of timberlands in northeastern and north central Uruguay, as well as a plywood and veneer manufacturing facility, a cogeneration facility, and a seedling nursery.
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The transaction is subject to customary purchase price adjustments and closing conditions, including regulatory review, and is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2017. Weyerhaeuser Uruguay and the buyer consortium will continue to operate separately until the transaction closes.