May 30, 2007

Houston Investor Wins $36M in Acquisition Suit

Leave a Comment / Finance, Mergers & Acquisitions, Free, Operations, Top Distributor Sectors, Building Materials/Construction, News, Legal Issues in Wholesale Distribution, Subscriber Only / MDM Staff

A Houston, TX, investor who alleged that private investment firm Key Principal Partners, LLC and corporate parent Key Corp. secretly cut him out of a 2003 deal to acquire one of Hawaii's largest lumber suppliers has won a $36.5 million jury verdict against the companies.

A Honolulu circuit court jury found late Wednesday that the Key defendants breached their fiduciary duties, intentionally interfered in investor Richard R. Foreman's attempts to acquire Honsador Lumber Corp, and violated Hawaii's unfair competition statute.

Foreman alleged that he and a group of investors that included Key Principal Partners, LLC formed a partnership in 2003 to buy Honsador for $28 million. According to the lawsuit, Key wrongfully withdrew from the partnership and then secretly ...

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Canadian Sawmills Shut Down

Leave a Comment / Free, Top Distributor Sectors, Building Materials/Construction, News, Subscriber Only / MDM Staff

Canadian sawmill operations are suffering thanks to the recent downturn in residential construction in the U.S.

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Calling the recent downturn the worst this industry has seen in decades," Canfor Corporation, Vancouver, BC, Canada, announced it would close its Mackenzie sawmill indefinitely once the remaining log inventory at the facility has been processed.
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The move is part of a program to reduce costs to help the company weather the market downturn. Canfor is a forest products company with 33 facilities in Canada and the U.S. It is a producer of softwood lumber, and produces oriented strand board, plywood, remanufactured lumber products and specialized wood products.
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Home Channel News reported that Federated Co-operatives, which serves ...

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Fletcher Building Buys Formica for $700M

Leave a Comment / Finance, Mergers & Acquisitions, Free, Top Distributor Sectors, Building Materials/Construction, News, Subscriber Only / MDM Staff

Fletcher Building Limited, Auckland, New Zealand, has acquired Formica Corporation, Cincinnati, OH, for $700 million. Fletcher is a publicly traded material and construction company with revenues of US$4 billion.

The company has five operating units: Laminates & Panels, Building Products, Steel, Infrastructure and Distribution.

Formica will retain the South America operations and certain real estate in California.

Formica has 14 manufacturing and 33 distribution facilities across Asia, Europe and North America.

In the near term, Formica will be structured as a business unit within the Fletcher Building Laminates & Panels division. Frank Riddick will remain as president and CEO of Formica and the management team will remain with the ...

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PT/MC Report: Sales Grow 7.4% in 2006

Leave a Comment / Economic Trends, Research & Analytics, Free, Top Distributor Sectors, Power Transmission/Motion Control/Fluid Power, News, Subscriber Only / MDM Staff

Revealing the profit challenges and opportunities in the power transmission/motion control industry, a recent report from the Power Transmission Distributors Association supports forecasts made by PTDA members in late 2005 of moderate growth in sales with no change in gross margins in 2006.
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The Power Transmission Distributors Association announced the results of its 2007 PT Distributor Performance Report, based on 2006 data.
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When asked in October 2005 to forecast sales for 2006, 44% of distributor respondents indicated that they expected sales to increase between 5% and 9.9%. The actual sales growth rate for a typical PTDA distributor, as reported in the 2007 PT Distributor Performance Report, fell right in the middle of that range, with sales growth in 2006 ...

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May 30, 2007

Houston Investor Wins $36M in Acquisition Suit

Canadian Sawmills Shut Down

Fletcher Building Buys Formica for $700M

PT/MC Report: Sales Grow 7.4% in 2006

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