Georgia-Pacific is to acquire fibre specialist Buckeye Technologies in order to complement its existing cellulose business and products.
US fibre producer Buckeye Technologies and tissue and paper group Georgia-Pacific (GP) announced that they had reached a definitive agreement for GP to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Buckeye Technologies for $37.50 per share in cash. The transaction, which has been approved by both companies' boards of directors, is valued at about $1.5bn.
Buckeye Technologies' product portfolio includes specialty fibres and nonwoven materials made from wood and cotton. The company's manufacturing assets include a specialty pulp mill, two cotton cellulose mills and mills producing nonwovens in the US and Germany. In addition the company has sales offices in Beijing, the UK, France, Italy and Switzerland. Buckeye has about 1,200 employees and reported sales of $895m for its last full financial year.
