Jul 21, 2009. /Lesprom Network/. Brookfield Asset Management Inc. holds 70.5% of Fraser Papers' shares (as of Dec. 31, 2008). Recently Brookfield has agreed to give up to US$20 million to the embattled forestry firm under new debtor-in-possession financing conditions approved last week by a Toronto court, according to ForestTalk. Fraser Papers will be receiving another $24 million in loans from CIT Business Credit Canada Inc. and $9 million CAD from the New Brunswick Government to completely modernize their Plaster Rock sawill. Because Brookfield holds the majority of the shares, they should be able to "call the shots" during Fraser Paper's restructuring. But due in part to Brookfield’s interest in Acadian Timber Income Fund, the involvement of the shareholder in restructuring bodes well for the survival of Fraser Papers and the mill, according to Michel Soucy, a forestry professor at the Université de Moncton’s Edmundston campus. “It’s not a regular shareholder,” Soucy said.“The majority shareholder is trying to rescue its own enterprise with its own money.” Among other ties between Fraser Papers and the Toronto-based asset manager, Brookfield holds 40% of shares in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P., which manages Acadian Timber. Under a 20 year agreement that began in 2006, Fraser Papers signed a deal to acquire 36% of its round wood fibre needs for New Brunswick and Maine from Acadian Timber. The company’s paper mill in Madawaska, Maine – which management has said will remain part of its future core business – has historically sourced 75 per cent of its pulp from the Edmundston complex, which includes the sulphite mill, as well as a groundwood pulp mill and cogeneration plant; the company is purchasing pulp from other North American sources while its sulphite mill is down. The sulphite pulp mill in Edmundston will no longer be part of the company's future after 97% of its unionized workers refused a new contract offer. Brookfield's strategy isn't clear, but it does seem that they are keeping Fraser Papers in business. On top of Brookfield's ownership of property assets, renewable power, electricity transmission and other specialty funds, the company manages 1.7 million acres of timberlands in Canada, 700,000 acres in the United States and 160,000 acres in South America. It appears that Brookfield's assets are diversified enough so that if losses are suffered in one area, another area would profit. According to Fraser Papers’ 2008 annual report, Brookfield helped the company raise US$60 million from a fully-underwritten rights offering to shareholders last year, and backstopped a $25 million expansion of a revolving term facility and secured another separate $25 million loan.