North Pacific gets court OK to sell assets

A federal judge has approved the estimated $25 million sale of portions of North Pacific Group’s assets.

Next week the court-appointed receiver in charge of the beleaguered wood products distribution company, once Oregon's third-largest private company, is expected to seek court approval for two more asset sales.

U.S. District Court Judge Garr M. King on Thursday signed off on the deal reached Feb. 10 to sell portions of three North Pacific business units to a subsidiary of Connecticut-based Atlas Holdings LLC working under the name Bridgewell Resources LLC. The acquisition is expected to close early next week.

Under the deal, Atlas will acquire North Pacific’s food and agriculture and utility and construction units, and the Portland-based portions of its hardwood and industrial products unit.

Atlas will pay $2 million plus 80 percent of the book value of accounts receivable and 50 percent of the value of inventories on the day before the deal closes. At the time the asset purchase agreement was reached earlier this month, the deal was valued between $20 million to $25 million, while saving an estimated 100 jobs.

Once a giant in Oregon business, North Pacific had nearly $1 billion in 2008 revenue. But it was forced into receivership on Jan. 20 after a consortium of lenders, led by Wells Fargo Capital Management, filed a lawsuit claiming the company and its subsidiaries defaulted on loans.

U.S. District Court Judge Anna J. Brown signed a court order putting Lake Oswego-based crisis management firm Edward Hostmann Inc. in charge of the employee-owned company.

When it was put into receivership, North Pacific owed the lender group about $42 million, a figure that had narrowed to $30 million by the time of the Feb. 10 purchase agreement.

The Atlas acquisition doesn’t include the company’s building products division, portions of its hardwood lumber and flooring manufacturing operations in Arkansas and Missouri, or its Southern Trading Unit — which has been accused of distributing a small amount of contaminated drywall products imported form China.

Hostmann’s attorney Barry Caplan of Portland-based Sussman Shank LLP on Friday said Hostmann has reached two other asset purchase agreements and is expected to seek court approval for the deals next week.

He declined to provide details of the agreements. Hostmann couldn’t be reached for comment.