Teal Jones Group Reaches Interim Financing Deal; Restarting Operations

According to documents filed with the BC Supreme Court, BC-based forestry company Teal Jones Group has reached an interim financing deal that will allow it to restart operations and continue to reorganize its business under court protection from its creditors, The Vancouver Sun reported on Tuesday.

On April 25th, Teal Jones filed for protection from its creditors due to a cash crunch that left it without enough revenue to keep up with its bills. In its filing, the company said it needed to raise $60 million in financing, including $3 million within 10 days of filing to get its operations back on track.

BC Supreme Court Justice Gordon Weatherill granted an extension of that protection until August 1st while the company continues its reorganization and seek a potential sale.

In an affidavit to the filing, Teal Jones Group’s vice president and chief financial officer Gerrie Kotze wrote, “The feedback following this (Companies and Creditors Arrangement Act) filing from our stakeholders has generally been positive.”

In his affidavit, Kotze said within three days, it had reached agreements to sell property Teal Jones owns on Haida Gwaii and struck a deal to sell the company’s interest in softwood lumber duties being held on deposit that are expected to be refunded upon resolution of the Canada-US softwood lumber dispute.

PwC was appointed monitor to the Teal Jones proceedings and in its initial report said the sale of properties on Haida Gwaii raised $864,000 and the sale of its expected refund of softwood duties an additional $11 million US.