Harvard wants Humboldt redwoods (update)

from the AP wire service via Forbes online:

Harvard endowment wants to take over bankrupt Pacific Lumber

Harvard University’s endowment said Thursday it’s interested in buying more than 200,000 acres of timberlands in California as part of a plan to take over logging company Pacific Lumber Co. and bring it out of bankruptcy.

An attorney for the university endowment, the country’s largest, said it’s ready to offer a bankruptcy plan for Pacific Lumber. He said the offer would top the price offered by hedge fund Marathon Asset Management, although the plan would otherwise be similar to Marathon’s.

“Harvard is a serious institution. It has $5 billion invested in forestry right now,” Harvard lawyer Steven Hoort told Judge Richard Schmidt of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Corpus Christi, Texas.

The rest of the story is here>>>

thanks to Greg King of the NEC for the tip…

A quick thought, isn’t it kind of late for them to be jumping into the game? But, I guess being from Harvard and all they must know that sort of thing.

update:

As suggested by an anonymous commenter, we looked at reporter Mike Geniella’s take on the story in the Press Demo:

…in a surprise move Thursday morning, attorneys for holders of the $714 million bonded indebtedness announced that legendary California timberman Archie “Red” Emmerson may join with Texas banker Andrew Beal and Harvard’s endowment fund to make an even higher offer.

As envisioned under that plan Emmerson’s Sierra Pacific Industries, California’s single largest landowner, would take over the Scotia mill complex operation in partnership with Harvard and Beal. Beal has said he’s willing to put up $603 million cash for Pacific Lumber’s assets.

There’s no mention of Rob Arkley, (as suggested by the anon), but Geniella does quote Forbes (not from the story above) on the billionaire status of Emmerson and Beal:

Forbes says Red Emmerson, a Humboldt County native who still wears blue jeans and drives a Chevy pick-up, is worth slightly more: $1.5 billion [Forbes actually says $2.1 billion]. Emmerson’s family owned Sierra Pacific is believed to be the nation’s third largest private landowner, with 1.8 million acres of timberlands.

Dallas banker Beal’s worth also is an estimated $1.5 billion. And in Texas, Beal’s passion for poker is widely known. He’s sat down to some of the highest-stakes private games ever played, according to the 2005 book The Professor, the Banker and the Suicide King

Over at the Community Forest Team blog, David Simpson has touched on Beal’s poker style strategy, but he has not yet discussed the Harvard/Emmerson entry into what David calls The Beal Deal.

This article appears in Fear in the Hills.