Business
Western Forest Products Reduces and Renegotiates U.S. Term-Debt
Western Forest Products Reduces and Renegotiates U.S. Term-Debt.
About this update from Western Forest Products Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"\n\n\n\nTSX: WEF\n\n\nDUNCAN, BC, March 8 /CNW/ - Western Forest Products Inc. (TSX: WEF) today\nannounced that it has renegotiated the terms of its U.S. dollar denominated\nlong-term debt with the Brookfield Bridge Lending Group. Principal changes to\nthe terms include:\n\n\n- Interest rate reduced from floating one-month LIBOR + 8.15% to\n floating one-month LIBOR plus 3%\n\n- Annual fees of 0.75% (1% in final year) eliminated\n\n- U.S. dollar denominated debt reduced from U.S.$95.3 million to U.S.\n $73.7 million through a payment of U.S.$21.6 million from the\n Company's cash reserves\n\n\nThe U.S. debt matures on March 10, 2010 and may be fully or partly\nprepaid at anytime without penalty. In addition to the U.S. debt, at\nDecember 31, 2006 the Company had outstanding Cdn$99.9 million of Canadian\ndollar denominated debt that will mature on March 10, 2008. The Canadian debt\nbears interest at floating CIBC Prime plus 5.25%.\n\n\nCommenting on the revised terms, Reynold Hert, President and CEO stated,\n"The combination of lowering the U.S. debt, reducing the interest rate and the\nother amendments will together save the Company approximately $7.0 million\nannually in interest costs and is an important next stage in our efforts to\nrefinance the Company's balance sheet and reduce our cost of capital."\n\n\nWestern Forest Products\n\n\nWestern is an integrated Canadian forest products company and the largest\ncoastal British Columbia woodland operator and lumber producer with an Annual\nAllowable Cut of approximately 7.7 million cubic meters of timber (before\ntemporary AAC reductions and reductions with respect to the removal of certain\nprivate timberlands from Tree Farm Licences) and lumber capacity in excess of\n1.5 billion board feet from eight sawmills and four remanufacturing plants.\nPrincipal activities conducted by the Company and its subsidiaries include\ntimber harvesting, reforestation, sawmilling logs into lumber and wood chips,\nand value-added remanufacturing. Substantially all of Western's logging is\nconducted on government owned timberlands in British Columbia. All of\nWestern's operations, employees and corporate facilities are located in the\ncoastal region of British Columbia while its products are sold in over 20\ncountries worldwide.\n\n\nForward Looking Statements and Information\n\n\nThis p...