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Canadian billionaire Jim Pattison — whose conglomerate owns businesses including supermarkets, fisheries and billboards — offered to take lumber producer Canfor Corp. private for about $981.6 million.

Pattison’s Great Pacific Capital Corp., which already owns 51 per cent of Canfor, proposed on Sunday to buy out the remaining shares for $16 apiece, an 82 per cent premium to the stock’s closing price on Friday. Vancouver-based Canfor said it has formed a special committee of independent directors to review the offer.

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Canfor shares soared 72 per cent to $15.12 Monday.

The deal would give 90-year-old Pattison, who’s sometimes referred to as Canada’s Warren Buffett, full control over the maker of lumber, plywood, pulp and paper. The offer comes amid a slump in Canfor’s shares, which have plunged 69 per cent during the past 12 months as the U.S. housing market slowed.

The deal — which values the entire company at about $2 billion, based on 125.2 million shares outstanding — would require the holders of two-thirds of the stock to approve a special resolution, Great Pacific said.

Bloomberg.com