Louisiana-Pacific to buy Ainsworth Lumber for $1 billion, shares jump
Thu Sep 5, 2013 10:37am EDT
(Reuters) - Louisiana-Pacific Corp's (LPX.N) investors backed the building products maker's move to buy Canada-based peer Ainsworth Lumber Co Ltd (ANS.TO) for about $1.1 billion, including debt, pushing its stock up 13 percent.
The deal, representing a 30 percent premium to Ainsworth's Tuesday close, will help Louisiana-Pacific expand in Asia and other internationalmarkets.
Private equity funds managed by Brookfield Asset Management Inc, which own 54 percent of Ainsworth, will vote in favor of the transaction.
Ainsworth Lumber makes and supplies homebuilding products, including oriented strand boards to dealers, builders, manufacturers, and homeowners in North America and Asia.
Brokerage Deutsche Bank upgraded the Louisiana-Pacific's stock to "buy" from "hold."
"On its own, this deal looks attractive: ANS has the best margins among peers & gives LPX access to growing Asian mkts, especially Japan," Deutsche Bank analyst Mark Wilde said in a note.
The stock, which was trading at nearly one-and-a-half times its average 10-day volume, was up at $17.26 on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday morning.
(Reporting by Chandni Doulatramani in Bangalore)