
The Rayonier headquarters in Wildlight in Nassau County.
Rayonier Inc. announced an agreement March 10 to sell its
interests in New Zealand timberlands for $710 million. The
timber and real estate company will focus on U.S. operations.
The timber and real estate company headquartered in Wildlight in
Nassau County owns 77% of a joint venture that controls 412,000
acres in New Zealand.
With the sale, Rayonier will focus exclusively on U.S.
operations, which include 1.75 million acres of timberland in
the South and 308,000 in the Northwest.
Rayonier also has a real estate development unit with projects
including Wildlight.
Rayonier is selling its stake to a fund managed by investment
firm TRG, which specializes in emerging assets and real estate.
“After completing a comprehensive review of strategic
alternatives for our New Zealand business, we believe the
decision to sell our joint venture interest is the best path
forward to create value for our shareholders,” said Rayonier CEO
Mark McHugh in a news release.
Rayonier’s presence in New Zealand started in 1988 and it
produced positive results for the company, McHugh said.
“Despite these positive attributes, the New Zealand business
lacks meaningful synergies with our core U.S. operations, and we
further believe that the value of the New Zealand joint venture
is not fully appreciated in the public markets. Thus, after
careful consideration, we believe now is the appropriate time to
sell our interest and opportunistically redeploy capital,” he
said.
Rayonier said it anticipates paying a special dividend of $1 to
$1.40 per share in cash and stock after the transaction closes.
The company announced a realignment plan in November 2023 and
anticipated selling off $1 billion in assets, but the New
Zealand sale will bring its total dispositions to $1.45 billion
under the plan.
“The success of this plan has allowed us to significantly reduce
leverage, return capital to shareholders, and generate CAD (cash
available for distribution) and NAV (net asset value) per share
accretion, while also leaving us better positioned to create
long-term value for our shareholders going forward,” McHugh
said.
Source:
jaxdailyrecord.com