News
Owner of Alberta Newsprint sole bidder for NewPage N.S. mill

The good news is that the remaining bidder for the idled NewPage Port Hawkesbury paper mill wants to keep the operation running; the not-so-good news is that the buyer still has to find a way to bring costs down to make the mill viable.

The good news is that the remaining bidder for the idled NewPage Port Hawkesbury paper mill wants to keep the operation running; the not-so-good news is that the buyer still has to find a way to bring costs down to make the mill viable.

Pacific West Commercial Corp. has been chosen as the remaining bidder for the mill by the monitor in the NewPage Port Hawkesbury bankruptcy proceedings. Pacific West

is associated with Stern Partners Inc., a Vancouver investment firm that also owns Alberta Newsprint Co. of Whitecourt, Alta., and West Linn Paper Co., an Oregon-based mill, as well as two newspaper publishing businesses.

According to the court-appointed monitor, Ernst & Young, “the sale is subject to a number of significant conditions being satisfied as outlined in the PWCC offer.  The focus will now shift to satisfying these conditions to facilitate a going concern sale of assets.”

Ron Stern, founder and president of Stern Partners, is also president and CEO of Alberta Newsprint Co., Whitecourt, Alta. He told Nova Scotia media he only intends to operate the supercalendered paper machine at the Port Hawkesbury mill, producing supercalendered and higher grades. The mill also houses a newsprint machine.

A timeline for the sale is not clear. Ernst & Young will seek an extension until March 30, 2012 of the stay of proceedings currently in place on the NewPage Port Hawkesbury creditor protection proceedings.