End of the road for newsprint maker Norske Skog; to file for bankruptcy
(Oslo, Dec. 19, 2017) The board of the parent company for Norway’s long-troubled forestry firm Norske Skog announced that they are declaring Norske Skogindustrier AS insolvent and filed for bankruptcy in an Oslo court on Tuesday Dec. 19. However, the company announced that operations at the company’s seven paper mills would continue as usual.
The board of Norske Skog has for months been trying to avoid bankruptcy and has pushed back multiple times deadlines to conclude negotiations with creditors. However, they were left with little options after Norwegian investment firm Aker and Norske’s leading creditor said they would push the company to give up its seven mills.
Aker, the investment vehicle of Norwegian billionaire Kjell Inge Roekke, said it had formed a joint venture with London and Malta-based investment fund Oceanwood Capital Management, to bid for Norske Skog’s mills – its core assets.
“The best way to ensure the stability of the operating companies is through an enforcement of our share pledge collateral and invoking a sale of the shares in Norske Skog AS,” Oceanwood said in a statement.
“Together with Aker we intend to take part in a structured auction process that will result in a new ownership for the operating entities.”
The announcement could soon lead to a winding up of the listed parent company, Norske Skogindustrier ASA. (Source: Reuters & other media reports)
Caption: Norske Skog paper plant in Trøndelag, Norway
