Finance Sweeps Up 5.1m Acres of US Forest

Forget productivity. America is descending full speed ahead into a nation lorded over by financial institutions, where every square inch is parceled and re-packaged into financial instruments to be traded back and forth, ad infinitum.

International Paper Co. on Tuesday said it has agreed to sell 5.1 million acres of U.S. forestlands for about $6.1 billion as part of its continuing restructuring.

Not bad, eh? That's about $1196 per acre.

Combined with deals last week with conservation groups, IP said it will have sold 85 percent of its U.S. forestlands for total proceeds of about $6.5 billion.

The paper company said it will sell some 3.8 million acres in the U.S. South and 440,000 acres in Michigan to an investor group led by Resource Management Service LLC for $5 billion in cash and notes.

It will also sell 900,000 acres in Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas to an investor group led by TimberStar for $1.1 billion in cash and notes.

Because of the scale of the transactions, IP said it expects to receive some of the proceeds in the third quarter and the bulk in the fourth quarter.

IP said it was exploring the sale of 300,000 acres of land, primarily in New York, while the balance of its land -- about 830,000 acres, mostly in the southern United States -- will be kept by the company for the near term.

It sure does sound like International Paper is closing operations here in the US. You can't manufacture paper without forests.

No matter - all part of globalization. Just another in a string of land sales to financial institutions.

AmSouth Bank and Resource Management Service, LLC., have assumed management responsibilities for 24,000 acres of timberland in central Georgia. The land was recently purchased from Weyerhauser Co. by AmSouth clients for $31 million.

"This acquisition provides a nice addition to our timberland investment portfolio, and we will continue to assist our clients in acquiring additional timberland in regions throughout the South . . ."

Even the government is selling America's forests to private investors, most likely financial institutions. No man's land is off-limits to finance.

Get used to it. This is the future, America.