Article content

Recent activity at West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. has revealed that British Columbian billionaire Jim Pattison owns a significant minority stake in the company, prompting speculations of a merger with rival Canfor Corp., according to an analyst.

Pattison owns 10 per cent of West Fraser, North America’s No. 1 lumber producer, said Paul Quinn, a paper and forest-products industry analyst at RBC Capital Markets, and already owns a majority stake in Canfor, North America’s No. 2 lumber producer.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Pattison's increased lumber portfolio prompts speculation of Canfor, West Fraser Timber merger Back to video

“That automatically brings up the idea of Canfor and West Fraser coming together,” said Quinn. “It’s an interesting idea, but would be very difficult to accomplish.”

Pattison has owned the same stake in West Fraser since 2011, Quinn said. However, it wasn’t until after a series of share-repurchases by the company – which reduced the size of West Fraser’s pool of outstanding shares – that Pattison’s stake amounted to just over 10 per cent, which is the threshold at which shareholders must disclose their holdings, under Canadian Securities Administration regulations.