Fletcher Paper ready to set sale

By Phil Boeyen, ShareChat Business News Editor

Tuesday 4th July 2000

Fletcher Challenge Paper's future will be decided today.

A special shareholder's meeting will be held in Auckland this morning to vote on the proposed sale to Norske Skog.

Late last week the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) announced its approval of the Norske Skog acquisition.

The sale of the paper division was announced in early April for an estimated NZ$5.0 billion, and under the terms of the transaction Norske will pay cash for all the shares at a price of NZ$2.50 per share.

It will also make a payment to Fletcher Challenge which will be used to repay all outstanding Paper indebtedness at closing, and cover the Paper Division's share of the total costs of separation from the Fletcher Challenge Group.

Following the acquisition of FCP, Norske will become the second largest newsprint manufacturer in the world with total production capacity of 5.1 million tonnes of newsprint.

Founded in 1962, Norske is an international pulp and paper group with production facilities in Norway, France, Austria, the Czech republic, Thailand, Korea and China, and operations in Brazil through a partnership there.

The company had 1999 operating revenues of US$2.2 billion and pre-tax earnings of US$224 million.

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