India papermaker seeks to buy Bucksport mill
Newly disclosed documents in an antitrust hearing has revealed that a Mumbai, India-based papermaker wants to buy Verso Paper’s shuttered mill in Bucksport and continue operations.
A federal judge in U.S. District Court in Bangor on Tuesday is expected to consider offers made by the Indian company and one other papermaker, according to the Portland Press Herald. But the current buyer, Canadian scrap metal company American Iron & Metal, said it has doubts that the Indian company has enough money to buy the mill.
The Bangor Daily News reported that Rahul Kejriwal, head of of Kejriwal Singapore International, sent a letter dated Jan. 16 to the U.S. District Court, saying he was seeking to buy the mill, but had been told that it was already sold. The court is currently considering whether Verso would violate any antitrust laws if it completes its $58 million sale of the mill to AIM.
Kejriwal wrote in the letter that when his company learned about about the mill’s pending closure, he made an inquiry about purchasing the mill and was told “the mill had been sold.” He continued: “We have a plan to acquire and resume operations at Bucksport if we are able to acquire it, potentially hiring several hundred people and sourcing Maine forest products.”
According to Kejriwal, Kejriwal Singapore International is an international papermaker “with more than $1 billion in sales of paper and paper related products and more than 8,000 employees in 23 countries.” He added that the company is “the world’s largest manufacturer of ruled recycled paper products and … one of the largest newsprint makers in Asia.”
Kerjriwal’s letter was included with letters, also sent to federal Judge John Woodcock Jr., from Gov. Paul LePage and Senior Forest Products Adviser Rosaire Pelletier in the new court disclosures. LePage said in his Jan. 16 letter that his administration sought to keep the mill’s workers employed by finding a new buyer.
“Instead, Verso agreed to sell the mill to a Canadian metal recycler,” LePage wrote, referring to AIM. “What disturbs our administration even further is that more than one firm had expressed genuine interest in acquiring the asset in Bucksport to continue papermaking activities.”
Attorneys for Verso and AIM have previously told a federal judge in U.S. District Court that there were no other buyers identified for the mill. The AIM attorney said there had been no evidence of a buyer who is willing to pay more than the mill’s $58 million sale price.
Herb Black, AIM’s owner, told the Press Herald that he questioned whether Kejriwal’s company had enough money to buy the mill. However, he said, he would be happy to sell the mill to any company that has enough money.
The closing of the mill’s sale is expected to be scheduled after Woodcock issues a decision in the antitrust case, which was brought forward in December when officials of a machinist union sued Verso for allegedly violating federal antitrust laws.
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