Cascadia Report

Category: Business

  • Longview takeover would continue ownership shift

    Longview Fibre has rebuffed a $1.3 billion takeover bid by two private Oregon investment companies that would put one of Cascadia’s biggest landowners under private control.

    The offer comes from timber manager Campbell Group and Obsidian Finance Group, a private equity firm run by executives who left Willamette Industries when Weyerhaeuser acquired it.

    A deal would continue the shift in ownership of the region’s forests from integrated companies that have logging, mills and ties to local communities, to investment companies that manage timber as part of a portfolio of assets.

    Longview Fibre plans to convert to a REIT. It’s managed only a slim profit in recent years, despite trimming operations. It manages about 587,000 acres of timberland mostly in western Washington and Oregon, and has paper and box plants.

  • Tight BC economy means pre-Olympic boom

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    A building boom for the 2010 Winter Olympics may squeeze British Columbia, which already has one of Canada’s tightest labor markets. The energy boom has pushed the unemployment rate down to 5.1 percent, making it difficult to find good workers. Apparently they’re paying cashiers C$19 an hour in Northern B.C.

    Long-term growth requires broadening the economy beyond natural resources and developing a more educated workforce. Meanwhile the tight market in B.C. may mean business opportunities throughout Cascadia in the run-up to 2010.

  • Alaska Airlines calm about recent troubles

    A series of safety problems and one of the industry’s worst on-time records has fliers reconsidering their support of Cascadia’s top airline. But Chairman Bill Ayer doesn’t seem worried because traffic is still growing:Overview_739mtn

    “So I wouldn’t say from a reputation standpoint we have lost a lot, at least from the people I talk to anecdotally. And also the numbers, statistics show growing traffic, growing load factors.

    “But it doesn’t mean that we don’t need to get back to an on-time operation, a reliable operation with good baggage delivery. We need to get back to those standards, absolutely.”

  • Conservation Voters Rate Politicians on Business Votes

    Rep. Dave Reichert (R – WA, 8th) got a 28% rating by the League of Conservation Voters in its 2005 Conservation Scorecard. The rating counts votes on business issues such as renewable energy, fuel economy, gas and oil refineries, funding for logging roads and the Central American Free Trade Agreeement. Adam Smith (D – 9th) and Jay Inslee (D – 1st) got perfect scores. Eastern Washington’s Doc Hastings (R – 4th) and Cathy McMorris (R – 5th) got 0% ratings.

    Four of Oregon’s representatives got 100% ratings, but Rep. Greg Walden (R – OR, 2nd) got 11%. Logotopsub_1