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Regulators Clear NewPage's Purchase Of 8 Paper Mills

Paper maker’s $2.1 billion purchase of mills from Finnish paper giant Stora Enso Oyj approved by antitrust regulators.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Antitrust regulators have approved NewPage Holding Corp.'s $2.1 billion purchase of eight paper mills from Finnish paper giant Stora Enso Oyj, a government agency said Monday.
 
Dayton, Ohio-based NewPage, which makes coated paper for magazine and catalog publishers, agreed to the deal in September. NewPage is owned by private-equity firm Cerberus Capital.
 
Six of the mills are in Wisconsin; one is in Duluth, Minn.; and the eighth is in Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia.
 
NewPage already accounts for about 22 percent of the U.S. coated-paper business. It owns and operates mills in Michigan, Maryland, Maine and Kentucky. The deal will boost its share of the coated-paper market to 28 percent, the company said in September.
 
The Federal Trade Commission included the deal on a list of transactions that received an ''early termination'' of their antitrust reviews. Early termination refers to the completion of a review before the end of a 30-day period required under antitrust law.
 
Shares of Stora Enso rose 26 cents to $15.72 in midday trading Monday.
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