BILT in talks to sell Malaysian Sabah Forest Industries

摘要

Ballarpur Industries (BILT) is understood to be in talks with Chinese giant Nine Dragons Paper Group to sell its Malaysian forest arm, Sabah Forest Industries, in a $350-million deal. Reviving efforts to divest what was once a crown jewel is yet another attempt by the company to deleverage the BILT balance sheet. BILT, India's largest maker of writing and printing paper, has been in talks with Nine Dragons for some time now and the discussions are likely to lead to a binding agreement soon. Negotiations have been ongoing. There have been issues like valuation mismatch but hopefully they will get sorted now. Mr. Thapar himself was in Malaysia recently and is fronting bilateral negotiations for his company but there is still no guarantee that discussions will lead to a transaction. Nine Dragons said they had looked at Sabah, but not proceeded further. In 2007, BILT has acquired Sabah for about $261 million, in what was the first significant overseas acquisition by an Indian paper company. Sabah makes paper and paper-related products. It also offers solid wood-related products such as rough and chemically treated sawn timber and panel-based products, including dried veneer and raw plywood.