The announcement today that NewPage is selling two US mills to Catalyst is likely to be the “catalyst” for the planned merger between Verso and NewPage, thus satisfying antitrust concerns.
Catalyst’s purchase of the two mills will more than quintupling the Canadian company's capacity for making coated paper.
Experts now expect that the merger between NewPage and Verso Paper is imminent. Federal antitrust officials have delayed the merger as they were concerned that, by owning half of North America's capacity to make coated paper, a combined Verso-NewPage would have too much market power and prices would increase.
