Brookfield Infrastructure Partners in negotiations to sell its 25% stake in British Columbia's Island Timberlands for C$170M, expects to close sale in second half of 2013

Wendy Lisney

VANCOUVER, British Columbia , May 14, 2013 (The Vancouver Sun) – Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has reported that it is negotiating the sale of its 25-per-cent stake in Vancouver Island forest company Island Timberlands for $170 million.

The sale involves a change in the positions held by the timber company's existing shareholders and is expected to close in the second half of 2013.

Brookfield announced the change in ownership in a supplement to a prospectus it issued on an unrelated equity offering.

"Since the release of our quarterly results on May 2, 2013, we have executed definitive agreements to sell the remainder of our Canadian timber operations for $170 million," the prospectus stated. "Consistent with our financing strategy, we will seek to re-invest these proceeds at our targeted, after-tax annual return on equity of 12 per cent to 15 per cent."

Island Timberlands is a private forest company that owns 258,000 hectares of timber land, most of it on Vancouver Island. It is B.C.'s second-largest private landowner.

The lands, part of the 19thcentury E&N Railway grant and owned at one time by B.C. forestry giant Macmillan Bloedel, are managed by Brookfield Asset Management. Subsidiary Brookfield Infrastructure Partners is one of several major shareholders, along with the B.C. Investment Management Corporation, the pension fund for provincial employees.

A call to the B.C. fund was not returned Monday.

ghamilton@vancouversun.com

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