Brookfield Infrastructure Interest in its US Pacific Northwest Timberland Operations for Approximately $640M

Brookfield Infrastructure

today announced that it has signed definitive agreements to sell its interest in its U.S. Pacific Northwest timberland operations for approximately $790 million. The buyer will assume Brookfield Infrastructure's proportionate debt of approximately $320 million resulting in net proceeds from the transaction of approximately $470 million. This transaction is expected to be completed in July 2013. On June 7, 2013, Brookfield Infrastructure completed the sale of the remainder of its Canadian BC Coastal timberland operations for net proceeds of approximately $170 million. Brookfield Infrastructure will generate total proceeds before taxes of approximately $640 million from both transactions and upon closing, it will not hold any timberland assets. "The sale of our timberland assets was an opportunity to further our strategy of monetizing lower yielding assets to recycle capital into our utilities, transport and energy businesses," said Sam Pollock, Chief Executive Officer of Brookfield Infrastructure. "These transactions enabled us to monetize our remaining timberland assets at attractive prices reflecting their most recent third-party appraisals. With our strong pipeline of investment opportunities, we will seek to re-invest these proceeds at our targeted, after-tax return on equity of 12% to 15% per