NEW YORK, Jan. 31 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- U.S. Timberlands Company, L.P.
(OTC Bulletin Board: TIMBZ) today announced that the Delaware Court of
Chancery approved the settlement of the class action litigation commenced in
connection with the Company's proposed going private transaction.
The tender offer commenced as the first step of the transaction is
scheduled to expire at 12:00, midnight, New York City time, on February 7,
2003. The Company anticipates that the offer period will be extended in order
to provide additional time for the satisfaction of certain conditions
precedent, which are expected to be satisfied in a timely manner. To date,
approximately 5,958,720 common units (approximately 61% of the outstanding
common units) have been validly tendered and not withdrawn pursuant to the
tender offer. This amount does not include the additional 1,542,270 common
units (approximately an additional 16% of the outstanding common units)
currently owned by the offerors and their affiliates.
This announcement is neither an offer to purchase nor a solicitation of an
offer to sell U.S. Timberlands Company, L.P. common units. The tender offer
is only being made through an offer to purchase, letter of transmittal and
related tender offer materials. U.S. Timberlands Acquisition Co., LLC has
filed these tender offer materials with the Securities and Exchange Commission
and U.S. Timberlands Company, L.P. has filed a solicitation/recommendation
statement with respect to the offer. The tender offer materials and the
solicitation/recommendation statement contain important information.
Unitholders are urged to read this information carefully before making any
decisions about the tender offer. The tender offer materials, certain other
offer materials, and the solicitation/recommendation statement have been sent
free of charge to all common unit holders of U.S. Timberlands Company, L.P.
All of these materials are also available free of charge at the SEC's website
at http://www.sec.gov or by contacting the Information Agent, Innisfree M&A
Incorporated at (212) 750-5833 or (888) 750-5834.
U.S. Timberlands Company, L.P. and its affiliate own 670,000 fee acres of
timberland and cutting rights on 3,700 acres of timberland containing total
merchantable timber volume estimated to be approximately 1.9 billion board
feet in Oregon and Washington, east of the Cascade Range. U.S. Timberlands
specializes in the growing of trees and the sale of logs and standing timber.
Logs harvested from the timberlands are sold to unaffiliated domestic
conversion facilities. These logs are processed for sale as lumber, molding
products, doors, millwork, commodity, specialty and overlaid plywood products,
laminated veneer lumber, engineered wood I-beams, particleboard, hardboard,
paper and other wood products. These products are used in residential,
commercial and industrial construction, home remodeling and repair and general
industrial applications as well as a variety of paper products. U.S.
Timberlands also owns and operates its own seed orchard and produces
approximately five million conifer seedlings annually from its nursery,
approximately half of which are used for its own internal reforestation
programs, with the balance sold to other forest products companies.
Certain information discussed in this press release may constitute
forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Federal securities laws.
Although U.S. Timberlands believes that expectations reflected in such
forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, it can give
no assurance that its expectations will be achieved. Forward-looking
information is subject to certain risks, trends, and uncertainties that could
cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Such risks,
trends and uncertainties include the highly cyclical nature of the forest
products industry, economic conditions in export markets, the possibility that
timber supply could increase if governmental, environmental or endangered
species policies change, and limitations on U.S. Timberlands' ability to
harvest its timber due to adverse natural conditions or increased governmental
restrictions. For a more complete description of factors, which could impact
U.S. Timberlands and the statements contained herein, reference should be made
to U.S. Timberlands' filings with the United States Securities and Exchange
Commission.
SOURCE U.S. Timberlands Company, L.P.
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Related links:
http://www.ustimberlands.com
Company News On-Call:
http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/128507.html
CONTACT:
Thomas C. Ludlow, Chief Financial Officer of
U.S. Timberlands Company, L.P., +1-212-755-1100
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