Date Closed

March 01, 2023

Lead Office

Montréal

Value

2.70 Billion USD

On March 1, 2023, Paper Excellence Group, through its wholly owned subsidiary Domtar Corporation (“Domtar”), completed its acquisition of Resolute Forest Products Inc. (“Resolute”). Under the terms of the agreement with respect to the acquisition, Resolute stockholders are receiving US$20.50 for each share of the Resolute common stock and one contingent value right per share (on a fully diluted basis) entitling the holder to a share of potential future softwood lumber duty deposit refunds on about US$500 million of deposits paid by Resolute. The cash consideration represents an enterprise value of approximately US$2.7 billion, including pension liabilities and excluding the contingent value rights.

Paper Excellence Group, based in Richmond, British Colombia, is a diversified manufacturer of pulp and paper, including printing and writing, packaging and specialty paper.

Domtar, based in Fort Mill, South Carolina, is a provider of a wide variety of fibre-based products, including communication, specialty and packaging papers, market pulp and air-laid nonwovens.

Resolute, based in Montreal, is a forest products company with a diverse range of products, including market pulp, tissue, wood products and papers.

McCarthy Tétrault advised Paper Excellence Group with a team led by Jason Gudofsky and Patrick M. Shea that included Patrick Boucher, Hadrien Montagne, Konstantin Sobolevski, Sonia Bardakjian, Charles-Étienne Pressé, Suzie Cusson, Ariane Monjauze, Jerry Lan (Corporate and M&A); Raj Juneja, Nicolas Cloutier, Brendan Festeryga (Tax); Kate McNeill-Keller, Andre L. Baril, Alexandre Buswell, Myriane Le Francois, Caroline-Ariane Bernier, Nicole Deniset, Nadine Houle (Labour and Employment); Greg Winfield, Kelleher Lynch, Julia Miller (Pensions and Benefits); Joanna Rosengarten, Dominique Amyot-Bilodeau, Amelia Fong (Environment); Annie Gagnon-Larocque, Kent Beattie, Matthew Pekofsky, Rafaella Arapovic, Nicholas Alevras (Real Estate); John W. Boscariol (International Trade and Investment); Marc Dorion (Quebec Governmental Relations); Véronique Wattiez Larose, Lisa Melanson, Conrad Lee, Francis Langlois, Jamie Parker (Technology); Étienne Guertin, Zachary Masoud, Achille Treuil, Genevieve Loxley (Finance); Marc-Alexandre Hudon (Indigenous Matters); Reena Goyal, Jacob Stone, Will Horne, Alexandre Saulnier-Marceau, Elena Drouin (Energy); Debbie Salzberger, Gideon Kwinter (Competition/Investment Canada Act); Jocelyn Perreault, Gabriel Faure, Marc-Étienne Boucher, Francois Alexandre Toupin, Frederique Drainville (Bankruptcy and Restructuring); Sarah Woods and Bianca Annie Marcelin (Litigation).