Paper Excellence to buy Brazil’s Eldorado from J&F for $4.7 billion
(Sao Paulo, Brazil, Oct. 2017) Brazilian holding company J&F Investimentos SA on Saturday accepted a proposal from Netherlands-based Paper Excellence to buy pulpmaker Eldorado Brasil Celulose SA for 15 billion reais ($4.7 billion), including debt.
The companies said in a statement that the transaction would take 12 months to complete, and Paper Excellence, controlled by the owners of Indonesia’s Asia Pulp & Paper Co Ltd, would fully assume Eldorado’s debt of almost 8 billion reais.
Eldorado is among the flagship assets J&F put up for sale after brothers Joesley and Wesley Batista agreed to pay a record-setting 10.3 billion-real fine for their role in corruption scandals that have hurt President Michel Temer’s administration. As a result, the Batistas have had to shed assets and refinance debt.
Paper Excellence began operating its first cellulose plant in 2007 in Meadow Lake, Canada, and has since expanded by buying other plants in that country and Europe. (Source: Reuters)
