Forestar Group Inc. (NYSE: FOR) today announced that it completed its
previously announced sale of about 20,000 acres of HBU timberland in
Georgia for approximately $39.5 million to St. Regis Paper Company, LLC,
assignee of Holland M. Ware. The company intends to use proceeds from
this sale to reduce debt in accordance with its strategic initiatives
announced on February 11, 2009.
“This sale represents another significant step in executing our
strategic initiatives, despite difficult market conditions. Since the
announcement of our strategic initiatives, we have sold approximately
95,000 acres of timberland in Georgia and Alabama for almost $160
million. Proceeds from these sales will be used to reduce debt, which
will strengthen our balance sheet. We firmly believe these strategic
initiatives will enhance shareholder value,” said Jim DeCosmo, president
and chief executive officer.
Goldman, Sachs & Co. served as financial advisor and Sutherland Asbill &
Brennan LLP served as legal advisor to Forestar in connection with the
transaction.
About Forestar Group
Forestar Group Inc. operates in three business segments: real estate,
mineral resources and fiber resources. The real estate segment owns
directly or through ventures over 260,000 acres of real estate located
in nine states and twelve markets in the U.S. The real estate segment
has 24 real estate projects representing 33,600 acres currently in the
entitlement process, and 75 entitled, developed and under development
projects in seven states and eleven markets encompassing over 16,000
acres, comprised of over 29,700 residential lots and over 2,300
commercial acres. The mineral resources segment manages about 622,000
net acres of oil and gas mineral interests. The fiber resources segment
sells wood fiber from its land primarily located in Georgia, and leases
land for recreational uses. The company also has a 45% nonparticipating
royalty interest in groundwater produced or withdrawn for commercial
purposes from approximately 1.38 million acres in Texas, Louisiana,
Georgia and Alabama. Forestar’s address on the World Wide Web is www.forestargroup.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of
the federal securities laws. These statements reflect management’s
current views with respect to future events and are subject to risk and
uncertainties. We note that a variety of factors and uncertainties could
cause our actual results to differ significantly from the results
discussed in the forward-looking statements. Factors and uncertainties
that might cause such differences include, but are not limited to:
general economic, market, or business conditions; the availability of
loans and fluctuations in the credit markets; the opportunities (or lack
thereof) that may be presented to us and that we may pursue;
fluctuations in costs and expenses including development costs; demand
for new housing, including impacts from mortgage credit availability;
lengthy and uncertain entitlement processes; cyclicality of our
businesses; accuracy of accounting assumptions; competitive actions by
other companies; changes in laws or regulations; changes in federal
energy policies; demand for oil and gas; and other factors, many of
which are beyond our control. Except as required by law, we expressly
disclaim any obligation to publicly revise any forward-looking
statements contained in this news release to reflect the occurrence of
events after the date of this release.
Forestar Group Inc.
Chris L. Nines, 512-433-5210
