2nd Quarter Loss Could Force Pope & Talbot to Sell

Thursday, August 09, 2007 03:28 PM

The owners of the Ft. St. James sawmill and the Mackenzie Pulp mill have recorded a loss of $42.9 million dollars in the second quarter of 2007, that's nearly twice as much as was lost in the second quarter of 2006 ($21.8 million ). In the first quarter of 2007 the company lost $18.6 million.

Pope and Talbot is struggling. It has entered into a special agreement with its lenders which basically calls on Pope and Talbot to put its assets on the block while the company tries to trim its expenses.

In a release, Pope and Talbot says the company is exploring alternatives to strengthen its balance sheet and generate cash, those alternatives include "one or more possible asset sales or other capital infusions". The release goes on to say the company is looking at ways to restructure its debt, "including, if necessary, bankruptcy proceedings." The agreement with its creditors says Pope and Talbot will, over the next six weeks, "solicit offers to purchase all or substantially all of the Company's assets or equity interests."

Once again the strong Canadian dollar is being blamed as one of the reasons for the company's woes. The company also cites "a scarcity of affordable fiber resources."

Pope and Talbot's President and CEO, Harold Stanton, says those factors are largely out of the company's control, but other steps are being taken. One production line at the Nanaimo pulp mill has been cut, the corporate jet has been sold and there is a salary and hiring freeze in effect for all staff and salaried poistions

In B.C., Pope and Talbot operates pulp mills in Mackenzie and Nanaimo, and sawmills in Ft. St. James, Midway, Grand Forks and Castlegar. The company is headquartered in Oregon.

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Posted on Thursday, August 09, 2007 03:28 PM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: Chadermando on August 9 2007 5:49 PM

No synergies. Mills all over the place. No strategy by the looks of it.

If I was Pope and Talbot I would have made an arrangement with Canfor for the Mackenzie sawmill Canfor was going to close and try to generate synergies between that mill their pulp mill in Mackenzie and the saw mill in the Fort with a resource road connecting the two towns. If they were smart they would try to keep the Mackenzie pulpmill open and let the other operations go firts IMO.

Posted by: dgdiggler on August 10 2007 7:16 AM

Inevitably, there is not much the pulp and paper giants can do about it until the US housing market picks up. The real reason why the cdn dollar is up is because the US dollar is loosing its strength.

Posted by: Chadermando on August 10 2007 4:13 PM

Iran switched to the Euro last month for its oil sales and ditto for Russia, hence the dropping US dollar as nations no longer require it in reserves to acquire their energy needs. This is why the price of oil denominated in US dollars is on the rise.

The private bank of the European elite called the US Federal Reserve now has a choice to make. Do they support their printing press of fake money (American dollars) by raising the interest rates to make holding US bonds more attractive, thus killing the American economy through its housing market, or do they kill their fake currency on the global stage while protecting the American economy by not disrupting the US housing market with rising interest rates. The European banking elite have some big decisions to make.

I suspect it will all come down to what is best for the advancement of zionism and the NWO agenda and not the average American. George Bush has no control over the matter other then the option of removing the Iranian regime to ensure American dollar primacy in the foreign reserves, thus saving the fake dollar for another day or face the economic consequences to his country and legacy.

Posted by: Palopu on August 10 2007 9:23 PM

You give George Bush to much credit. His next original thought will be his first.

Other than that, how are things in the world of the great conspiracies.