Industrials | Mergers & Acquisitions, Restructurings

NewPage Completes Sale of Port Hawkesbury Mill

  • TM Capital served as financial advisor to NewPage Port Hawkesbury Corp. (NPPH), in the sale of the Port Hawkesbury mill to Pacific West Commercial Corp., an affiliate of Stern Partners
  • NewPage was the largest coated paper manufacturer in North America and a portfolio company of Cerberus Capital Management, L.P.
  • The Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia mill had annual capacity of 360,000 metric tons of supercalendered papers and 185,000 metric tons of newsprint/groundwood specialties on two paper machines. It is one of the largest supercalendered paper mills in North America
  • NewPage Corporation retained TM Capital to sell the mill in mid-2011. Subsequently, NPPH sought Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) protection in September 2011. Due to substantial cash flow losses, the mill ceased production shortly thereafter
  • TM Capital worked with mill management, key stakeholders and the court appointed Monitor to develop a turnaround plan focused on cost reductions, improved product mix, more efficient energy usage, and selected capital investments that would enable a restart of the supercalendered papers machine
  • We approached a select group of financial sponsors and corporations willing to undertake the restructuring. Because of the mill’s importance to the local economy, the Province of Nova Scotia indicated willingness to provide support for the turnaround
  • Stern Partners, based in Vancouver, British Columbia, is a lead investor in a diverse range of operating companies in a variety of industries including two other companies in the paper sector
  • The sale was the fifth transaction TM Capital completed for NewPage