Anyone following POP?
Pope & Talbot could be a takeover candidate-report
NEW YORK, July 1 (Reuters) - Lumber and pulp maker Pope & Talbot Inc. (NYSE:POP - news) could be a contender in the list of paper companies that could be taken over as part of the ongoing consolidation in the industry, BusinessWeek magazine said in its latest issue.
Paper giants Georgia-Pacific (NYSE:GP - news) and Champion International Corp (NYSE:CHA - news) have looked at the books of Pope & Talbot and could be interested in it, according to a source mentioned in the report.
With a market value of just $155 million, based on its current stock price of 11-1/2, ''the stock is an easy buy for one of the paper-and-forest products majors,'' said the source -- identified as one California money manager, who has been buying the company stock and thinks that the stock could be worth $20.
Bear Stearns analyst Linda Lieberman said that Pope is a ''small-cap pulp and lumber play with a lot of operating leverage.'' She raised her second quarter earnings forecast to 3 cents a share, compared with a loss of 10 cents.
''This would be first time in six quarters that Pope will earn money,'' she said in the report that appeared in the ''Inside Wall Street'' section of the magazine.
None of the companies mentioned in the report were willing to comment, according to BusinessWeek. Pope & Talbot stock closed at 12-11/16, up 5/8, on the New York Stock Exchange.
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