AbitibiBowater has announced that its Bridgewater Paper Company Limited ("BPCL") subsidiary has filed for administration in the United Kingdom. The BPCL Board of Directors made this decision only after all other options to keep these U.K. operations solvent were exhausted.
The AbitibiBowater creditor protection proceedings and the BPCL filing for administration are separate and distinct legal processes. The possible outcomes of AbitibiBowater's creditor protection filings will not necessarily reflect on the future of BPCL in its administration filing, and vice versa. AbitibiBowater's ongoing efforts to restructure and emerge from its creditor protection filings continue to progress in the normal course.
"We recognize the impact the filing has on our U.K. employees and business partners; however, these actions were necessary and represent the best course of action going forward," stated David J. Paterson, AbitibiBowater President and Chief Executive Officer.
Throughout the BPCL administration filing, AbitibiBowater will help ensure European customers continue to receive quality products and service, free of business interruptions. "We remain committed to building on our many decades of sales into the international marketplace, and Europe is strategic to the Company's current and future sales efforts," added Paterson.
