Boise Cascade Corporation has completed the US$3.7bn sale of its forest products, paper and timberland assets.

The assets, which include the sale of the firm’s headquarters building in Boise, have been sold to Boise Cascade LLC, a new company formed by Madison Dearborn Partners.

The sale includes Boise Building Solutions, which produces plywood, lumber, chipboard and engineered wood products at 22 facilities in the US, Canada and Brazil, as well as 27 wholesale distribution outlets in the US. The division posted sales of US$3bn for the first nine months of 2004.

&#8220This transaction completes Boise’s transformation, begun in the mid-1990s, from a predominantly manufacturing-based company to a world-scale distribution company”

George Harad, executive chairman, OfficeMax

Boise Cascade Corporation will now operate its OfficeMax office products distribution business as its principal concern. The company’s name officially changed to OfficeMax Inc on November 1.

OfficeMax executive chairman George Harad said: “This transaction completes Boise’s transformation, begun in the mid-1990s, from a predominantly manufacturing-based company to a world-scale distribution company.”