Canfor Acquires Majority Stake in Sweden's Largest Sawmill Company

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): Canfor Corporation announced that it has completed acquisition of 70% stake in the Swedish VIDA Group. The Swedish company will continue to hold the remaining 30% stake and has also been entrusted with running the day-to-day business. The estimated purchase price was around CAD$ 580 million on a cash and debt-free basis. It must be noted that the company while announcing the transaction in Nov ’18 had expected to close it during the first quarter of 2019.

Don Kayne, President and Chief Executive Officer of Canfor stated that the company is extremely excited to welcome the entire VIDA team to its fold. Further, he noted that the company is looking forward to work with VIDA in developing its business on a global scale. Canfor will significantly benefit from the experience of VIDA team in producing quality wood products, their strong marketing network and above all, the value of VIDA brand across the world, Kayne added.

The purchase transaction was entirely financed with cash and liquidity on hand. Canfor has announced that it intends to make further investment to expand the acquired facilities, so as to boost their productivity.

Santhe Dahl, Group CEO and Måns Johansson, Deputy CEO, of VIDA will lead the company’s Swedish operations. Incidentally, VIDA Group operates nine sawmills in Sweden and an equal number of value-added facilities. The combined production capacity of all the facilities is estimated at around 1.1 billion board feet per annum, which makes it the country’s largest privately owned sawmill company.