B.C.’s entrepreneur of the year has become the target of a BC Supreme Court legal action.
On Tuesday, Fortress Paper (TSX:FTP) said industry competitor Sateri (Shanghai) Management Ltd. and Sateri International (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. had filed a notice of claim against the North Vancouver company seeking “an injunction to cease the alleged use of its unspecific confidential information.”
Sateri is one of the world’s largest dissolving pulp producers, a wood-based product that is used in everything from clothing to tires, paint and toothbrushes.
Business magnate Sukanto Tanoto, whom Forbes recently listed as one of Indonesia’s richest people, controls the company.
Last year, Fortress Paper, which specializes in wallpaper and bank notes, said it would spend $153 million on a mill in Quebec to get into the dissolving pulp market.
Chad Wasilenkoff, who was named Ernst & Young’s entrepreneur of the year for the Pacific region last September, leads the local company.
In a recent interview with Business in Vancouver, Wasilenkoff said he planned to triple the size of his dissolving pulp business by the end of the year (see “Wood key to building B.C.’s bio-age” – issue 1113; February 22-28).
Fortress called the claim “frivolous, vexatious and entirely without merit.”
The company intends to defend the action “vigorously.”
At press time, Fortress’ shares were down $0.91 to $47.29.