GreenFirst Forest Products has sold a chunk of private Northern Ontario forest to a southern Ontario firm for use in carbon offset credits.
GreenFirst announced on Nov. 7 it would sell its interest in 203,000 acres of private land to Perimeter Forest Limited Partnership in a cash transaction worth $49.25 million.
The company said the property is located in the boreal forest south of Kapuskasing.
“We are pleased to announce this transaction with Perimeter,” said Paul Rivett, GreenFirst’s chair, in a news release.
“The sale of these lands will allow Perimeter to foster long-term ecosystem benefits on the property and unlocks hidden value for GreenFirst shareholders.”
Based in Kincardine, west of Barrie, Perimeter was launched in 2021.
The company says its goal is to become “Canada’s premier source of high-integrity carbon offsets sourced from nature-based solutions.”
“GreenFirst’s legacy of good stewardship of the land combined with its attractive ecological features were value drivers for Perimeter,” Daniel Andres, Perimeter’s chief operating officer, said in the release.
Vancouver’s GreenFirst entered the northeastern Ontario forest industry in 2021 with the acquisition of four lumber mills and one paper mill from Rayonier Advanced Materials in a cash-and-share deal worth US$235-million.
The assets include sawmills in Chapleau, Cochrane, Hearst and Kapuskasing, along with the newsprint mill in Kapuskasing.
Earlier this year, the company announced it was restarting a paper line in Kapuskasing to produce a new, eco-friendly paper product line, Envirosmart, which would require the creation of 45 new jobs.
