Sale won’t affect Montana Resources

By Holly Michels, of The Montana Standard - 05/30/2007

Montana Resources, part of the Washington Companies, will not be affected by the sale of Washington Group International to San Francisco-based URS Corp., an official said Tuesday.

Mike Halligan, director of corporate and government relations for the Washington Corp. in Missoula, said the Washington Companies are privately held and not related to the publicly traded Washington Group International.

Halligan said no Montana companies or employees will be affected by the sale.

“It has nothing to do with all the private companies that are in Montana and all the private companies that Dennis (Washington) owns.” Missoula billionaire Dennis Washington directly or indirectly owns significant interest in Montana Resources, as well as other rail and marine transportation, construction, heavy equipment sales, aviation technology and real estate development entities that make up the Washington Companies.

Washington is chairman of the Washington Group.

“The mine, Modern Machinery, Montana Rail Link, Envirocon, shipping out of Vancouver and aviation in Seattle; all of those areas are separate, privately held companies with private boards of directors,” Halligan said.

“The sale of WGI to URS has nothing to do with these operations.” Reporter Holly Michels may be reached via e-mail at holly.michels@lee.net.