OREANDA-NEWS. February 04, 2011. RusForest AB has entered into an agreement to acquire the Russian harvesting company Sibartles, as the company said in a press release received by Lesprom Network.

Sibartles is the holder of a pine dominated forest lease, located approximately 80 km north of the Boguchansky LPK sawmill, with an Annual Allowable Cut (AAC) of 165,400 cubic metres and covering an area of 105,497 hectares. The remaining term of the forest lease is 43 years. Additionally, Sibartles owns harvesting and transportation equipment with a capacity to harvest and deliver approximately 30,000 cubic metres sawlogs per year.

The transaction more than doubles RusForest's AAC in the Boguchany area and will allow RusForest to increase self-sufficiency and the proportion of internally supplied sawlogs - with the aim of increasing production and reducing raw material related costs - at Boguchansky LPK during 2011 and 2012.

RusForest's long-term objective for Boguchansky LPK is to reach an annual sawnwood output of 200,000 cubic metres through investments in additional drying and sorting capacity at the site.

In conjunction with the acquisition, RusForest has hired two experienced harvesting managers as a step to strengthen the local harvesting organisation in Boguchany. Additionally, a new Chief Technical Officer, Ernst Pfefferkorn, with experience from leading European sawmills has been appointed to lead the development of RusForest's sawmills in Siberia.

"The forestry industry in Russia, and also in Boguchany, is going through a dynamic phase with increasing competition with regards to raw material. We are therefore very pleased to have been able to secure an additional forest lease in the region, which will enable RusForest to increase the internal supply of sawlogs to the Company's sawmill at Boguchansky LPK", comments RusForest's CEO, Martin Hermansson.

Following the acquisition of Sibartles, RusForest's consolidated AAC amounts to approximately 1.98 million.