Assets of Marysville mill may be sold
Published 9:00 pm Wednesday, March 17, 2004
MARYSVILLE — Crown Pacific Partners LP warned it may sell assets, including a Marysville lumber mill and local forests, as the company tries to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
The Portland, Ore.-based company stated in a filing with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission that there no longer is a "high probability" that Crown Pacific will hold onto all of its assets.
That scenario also has been brought up in talks between company officials and creditors.
"These discussions have indicated that our long-lived assets will either be sold or transferred to the secured creditors in satisfaction of their claims," this week’s filing stated.
Long-lived assets would include the mill at the south end of Marysville. The facility, which employs about 40 people, cuts softwood such as Douglas fir into lumber. Crown Pacific also owns thousands of acres of timber in the North Cascades, including some in Snohomish County.
But it’s too soon to tell what may be sold by Crown Pacific, spokesman John Mangan said Wednesday.
"There is no reorganization plan yet. That’s still being determined," Mangan said.
Other assets Crown Pacific owns include mills in Port Angeles and Gilchrist, Ore.; timber holdings on the Olympic Peninsula and in Oregon; and a number of lumberyard operations in Nevada and Arizona.
Paul Latta, a forest products industry analyst at McAdams Wright Ragen, said the company might have to offer a mill in order to sell portions of its timber holdings. That would assure the buyer that the harvested timber could be milled at a fair price.
"That might help smooth out any deal," Latta said. "It makes sense to sell a tract with a mill."
Founded in 1988, Crown Pacific filed for Chapter 11 in June after trying to restructure its debt outside of bankruptcy protection. As of September, the company’s debt exceeded $500 million.
"It is debt relating to land purchases and the fact we’re in a terrible lumber market," Mangan said. "But the mills have been operating well."
Crown Pacific’s stock was trading at just 14 cents a share Wednesday.
Reporter Eric Fetters: 425-339-3453 or fetters@heraldnet.com.
