West Fraser acquires Manning Diversified Forest Products

On October 30, 2015, West Fraser announced that it had acquired Manning Diversified Forest Products (Manning Diversified). Manning Diversified has sawmill operations and bioenergy production facilities in Manning, Alberta.

This acquisition is another in a series of lumber mill acquisitions as part of West Fraser’s plans to expand its operations in Alberta and southern U.S. West Fraser acquired two lumber mills in Arkansas and another lumber mill in Alberta in 2014 and acquired an Alberta lumber mill prior to that in 2012. McMillan was lead counsel in those prior and this most recent transaction.

This transaction was part of a competitive investment banker led process that began early this summer. Representing West Fraser was the McMillan team that included Allie Ketcham, Morgan McDonald, Natalie Cuthill, Gurleen Randhawa, Brittnee Russell, Craig Harkness and Tom Theodorakis (M&A, corporate, commercial, due diligence and real estate), Peter Botz (tax), and François Tougas (competition). The team was supported by the invaluable contributions of Alice Chang, Susan Dhillon, Juleanna Freeman, Darcie Young and Melinda Yee.

West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. is a Canadian forestry company based in Quesnel, British Columbia producing lumber, wood chips, LVL, MDF, plywood, pulp and newsprint.