The bankruptcy court in Florida received “two valid offers from eligible bidders” for “Klausner Lumber One” before the end of the takeover bid deadline. Apart from stalking horse bidder Mercer, which has been known for a while, other bidders are Binder Beteiligungs AG (through Timber One Acquisition Holdings, LLC (“Binderholz”)) and Mayr-Melnhof Holz Holding AG.
All three bidders fulfill the requirements defined in advance by industry insiders: The sawmill can only be bought by a bidder who operates sawmills with machines similar to the ones in use at Klausner Lumber One, i.e. a high-performance chipper line, ideally by Linck, and an adequate sorting system. Mercer has many employees which “went to school” at Klausner, and at both Binderholz and Mayr-Melnhof Holz, several Linck lines are in operation.
The starting bid is US-$ 30 million (around € 25.4 million) plus assumed liabilities. According to the court, the latter are supposedly identical with those listed in the Stalking Horse APA. Binderholz will be the first bidder at the auction. The company raised its offer to the above mentioned US-$ 30 million.
Who will take over Klausner Lumber One, will be decided today at 10 a.m. local time (i.e. 15 p.m. CET). Holzkurier.com will report live.
