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To: Jorjenzak who wrote (430)	7/23/1999 7:15:00 AM
From: Robert Dirks	Respond to of 1152

CANFOR and MAC-BLO Great results: Foresters MacBlo and Canfor see stronger Q2 profits By Allan Dowd VANCOUVER, July 22 (Reuters) - MacMillan Bloedel Ltd. (Toronto:MB.TO - news) and Canfor Corp. (Toronto:CFP.TO - news) credited stronger North American lumber markets on Thursday as they both reported stronger second quarter profits. MacBlo also said its planned acquisition by Weyerhaeuser Co. (NYSE:WY - news) is going smoothly and it does not expect trouble winning the approval to transfer its timber harvesting licenses in British Columbia to the U.S. forest products giant. MacBlo had a net profit of C$73 million, 57 cents Canadian per share, in the second quarter of 1999. It had a net loss of C$55 million, 45 cents Canadian per share, during the same period last year, during which it took a significant write-off. Canfor said it had a C$32.3 million profit, 55 Canadian cents per share, in the second quarter of 1999. That compared to loss of C$13.7 million, 24 Canadian cents per share, during the same quarter last year. Both companies also painted optimistic pictures for the rest of the year. ''We expect market conditions for building materials to remain strong in the third quarter. I think that's in the bag,'' MacBlo chief executive Tom Stephens told analysts. Strong housing demand in the United States has helped pull Canadian foresters such as MacBlo and Canfor out of the sea of red ink that soaked their books during over the past few years and forced many to restructure. ''Strong lumber markets have certainly been helpful, however, these results also reflect the significant work that has been done company-wide to improve productivity and reduce costs,'' Canfor chief executive David Emerson said in a written statement. MacMillan Bloedel's restructuring is credited as one reason it was targeted by larger rival Weyerhaeuser in a C$3.59 billion stock-swap deal announced last month. MacBlo executives told analysts in a conference call on Thursday that they have encountered no major problems in the acquisition and expect provincial officials to approve transfer of its timber licenses by the end of September. ''We are proceeding on track toward closing the transaction in the fourth quarter of 1999,'' Stephens said. Weyerhaeuser cleared a potential political hurdle earlier this month when it agreed to honor MacBlo's agreement to phase out the use of environmentally unpopular clear-cut logging practices in coastal British Columbia.