NewPage Updates Restructuring Effort

NewPage Corp., Miamisburg, Ohio, USA, this past week said that has been engaged in a series of discussions with its various constituents, including first lien note holders, second lien note holders, and the Unsecured Creditors' Committee, in an effort to finalize a consensual Chapter 11 plan. Information relating to these discussions has been posted on the NewPage restructuring website.

During these discussions, an ad hoc group of second lien note holders presented to an ad hoc group of first lien note holders an unsolicited proposal to combine NewPage and Verso Paper Corp. (Verso). After thoroughly evaluating this proposal, NewPage determined that the combination posed significant downside risks to its stakeholders, employees, and business. NewPage has also been advised that the first lien note holder group did not support the proposal. Accordingly, NewPage does not anticipate further discussions regarding this proposal.

NewPage is a producer of printing and specialty papers in North America with $3.5 billion in net sales in 2011. The company operates paper mills in Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, with a total annual production capacity of some 3.5 million tons of paper. The company's product portfolio includes coated, specialty, supercalendered, and uncoated papers.

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