Executives from Canada’s largest forestry company told a parliamentary committee Tuesday it has no current links with Asia Pulp and Paper , a global forestry giant that controls operations across Indonesia and China.
“And if he doesn't do that, well, we the elected officials and the media will be left with the same concerns — in other words, who is the true owner of Paper Excellence?” With a headquarters listed in Richmond, B.C., Paper Excellence holds dozens of pulp and paper mills across Canada, the U.S., Brazil and France. In March, it closed its latest multi-billion-dollar acquisition of Resolute Forest Products, a deal that now gives the company control of over 22 million hectares of Canadian forests and makes Paper Excellence the largest forestry products company in North America.
The contents of those emails, however, suggest few corporate barriers existed between Paper Excellence and APP at the time, with employees appearing to work together to guide an application to Chinese regulators during an attempted acquisition. “Do we have some agenda here to divert the product that we're selling into various markets into that Chinese market? That is absolutely not the case,” he said.
Moffat said a filing submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission indicated Paper Excellence is owned by Jackson Wijaya, but that that name could mean one of three things: A) Jackson Wijaya; B) family members of Jackson Wijaya; or C) trusts partnerships or limited liability companies for the benefit of a series of individuals.