Catalyst Paper Announces Successful Completion of Sale of Key U.S. Assets
The company will now focus on its Canadian operations, which are centered on three mills located in Powell River, Port Alberni and Crofton.
SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): Richmond, B.C.-based Catalyst Paper Corporation announced that it has completed the sale of its U.S. assets to ND Paper LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hong-Kong-based Nine Dragons Paper. The transaction, valued at $175 million, is said to have no effect on its Seattle sales office.
The sale mainly included the Biron, Wisconsin paper mill, which had employed nearly 400 people. The company, in a statement released Friday, thanked all the employees for their dedicated efforts to significantly improve the mill performance. It also thanked the community for their continued support to mill operations. The sale had also included another mill in Rumford, Maine and Catalyst Paper’s U.S. operations centre in Dayton, Ohio.
The deal was announced in May this year. The Catalyst’s shareholders had voted in favor of the transaction in the voting which took place in June 11. The three major shareholders, who hold approximately 87% of the company’s outstanding shares, had earlier agreed to vote in favor of the transaction.
The company will now focus on its Canadian operations, which are centered on three mills located in Powell River, Port Alberni and Crofton. The three mills together employ nearly 1,600 people in the region.
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Ned Dwyer, Catalyst President and CEO stated that the company is pleased to have completed the sale of its U.S. operations to ND Paper. The company will make use of the net proceeds of the sale to re-pay a significant share of its debt, Dwyer added. The company had gone bankrupt several years ago, which forced them to creditor protection in 2012. Meantime, Yan Cheung, the chairwoman of Nine Dragons reiterated the company’s commitment to make the mills more competitive, while remaining environmentally friendly and socially responsible. The acquisition of Catalyst Paper mills is the first step in its next phase of expansion, Cheung said.