BOISE, Idaho – Boise Cascade Corp. plans to sell its paper and timber assets to a private investment group for about $3.2 billion in cash to focus on worldwide distribution of office products.

The Idaho-based company said Monday that the sale to a new company formed by Madison Dearborn Partners LLC, a Chicago investment firm, should be completed by November.

Boise Cascade will change its name to OfficeMax, acquiring the name of the Cleveland-based office products seller it bought late last year for $1.2 billion in cash and stock. It will be headquartered in Itasca, Ill., outside Chicago.

The spinoff and name change marks the completion of the review of the company’s future launched with the OfficeMax purchase, Boise Cascade Chairman George Harad said Monday.

Harad, who will be the chairman of the board of OfficeMax, said the separation of the businesses “complete Boise’s transformation, begun in the mid-1990s, from a predominantly manufacturing-based company to a world-scale distribution company.”

“In the process, we will realize significant value for shareholders,” he said.

The deal requires approval from regulators in the United States and Brazil, where the company has timber interests, Harad said, adding that he did not expect problems.

Chris Milliken, who currently heads Boise Cascade’s office products division, will serve as OfficeMax president. The combination of the OfficeMax and Boise Cascade office products operations created the third-largest office products retailer in the nation with combined annual sales of over $8 billion.

The remaining timber and paper manufacturing company will be privately held, headquartered in Boise and named Boise Cascade LLC. The company be headed by W. Thomas Stephens, former president of MacMillan Bloecdel Ltd., a Canadian forest products company acquired in 1999 by Weyerhaeuser Co.

“In many respects, the transaction represents a return to Boise Cascade’s traditional roots as a leader in the paper and forest products industry,” Stephens said in a statement.

In 1990, paper and wood products sales contributed $3.2 billion of $4.4 billion in total revenues. During the spring quarter this year, following the acquisition of OfficeMax, paper and wood products accounted for $1.5 billion of $3.5 billion in quarterly revenue.