Boise Cascade Cancels Initial Stock Offering

Boise Cascade Co., a wood and paper producer owned by Madison Dearborn Partners and OfficeMax Inc., on Wednesday canceled an initial public offering of stock, after earlier cutting the price of the offering.

Because of changing market conditions, it wasn’t in the interest of existing shareholders to proceed with the stock sale, the Boise, Idaho-based company said in a statement. Boise Cascade and Madison Dearborn had hoped to sell 16 million shares this week.

“Market conditions in general aren’t receptive to an IPO at the moment,” spokesman Mike Moser said in a telephone interview. “The company is operating well, the businesses are performing well, and we didn’t think we were getting fair value for our shareholders.”

Earlier Wednesday, Boise Cascade said in a regulatory filing that it was cutting the offering’s expected price range to $17 to $19 a share -- down from a May 2 estimate of $24 to $26. Net proceeds were to go to existing shareholders, Forest Products Holdings, a unit of Madison, and OfficeMax, both of which own Class B shares.