First American Provides Title Insurance Coverage and Settlement Services for a $6.6 Billion Commercial Real Estate Transaction

November 14, 2006

SANTA ANA, Calif., /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- National Commercial Services (NCS), a division of First American Title Insurance Company, successfully completed the closing of the sale of approximately 6.1 million acres of forestlands for aggregate proceeds of approximately $6.6 billion. The $6.6 billion in land sales represent one of the largest transactions in the history of the title insurance industry.

First American enabled the successful completion of two major transactions for International Paper, including the transfer of 900,000 acres of forestland in Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas to TimberStar for approximately $1.13 billion on Oct. 30, 2006, and the transfer of 4.2 million acres of forestlands located across the southeastern United States and in Michigan and Texas to an investor group led by Resource Management Service, LLC for approximately $5 billion on Nov. 3, 2006. First America also assisted International Paper in three additional property sales this year.

"First American is proud to have represented the interests of our customer in this historic property sale," said Kenneth Rossburg, vice president of First American Title NCS. "Few companies have the expertise and financial strength to service a transaction of this magnitude. We are truly grateful to International Paper for entrusting us to efficiently and effectively close this strategic divestiture, and we are gratified that we could play a facilitating role in the transformation of their company." Enterprise-technology resources unique to First American, including the FAST Transaction System and Eagle Pro document repository system, enabled the parties to experience unprecedented efficiencies in product delivery. The resulting collaboration streamlined the negotiation and settlement process.

First American's NCS division provides single-point service for simple to multi-property/multi-state national commercial real estate transactions.

SOURCE First American Corporation


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