ASPI Honors Bill Edwards with Excellence in Leadership Award

Verso Corporation announced the filing of a preliminary proxy statement for a special meeting of stockholders, at which Verso stockholders will consider and vote upon various items related to the proposed and previously announced transaction with BillerudKorsnäs AB. If approved, all Verso stockholders will receive $27.00 per share in cash upon closing of the transaction, representing immediate and certain value at a significant premium. The preliminary proxy statement provides detailed disclosure regarding, among other things, the robust process overseen by the Special Committee, the Special Committee's consideration of indications of value, the fairness opinion received from Rothschild & Co., its financial advisor, regarding the merger consideration and the analysis underlying that opinion, the Special Committee's efforts to seek the best price reasonably available for stockholders, and the Board and the Special Committee's rationale for accepting BillerudKorsnäs' offer as being in the best interests of stockholders.

With around 4,000 women employed directly or indirectly by Sappi Forests nationwide– through its own personnel in its nurseries, and sub-contracted to its harvesting and silviculture contractors – the company is very aware of the crucial role that rural women play in the agricultural labour force. It is to these women that the United Nations have dedicated the International Day of Rural Women, celebrated on 15 October every year. Fittingly, the theme for this year is “Building rural women’s resilience in the wake of COVID-19” and highlights the fact that the specific struggles that rural women face in their daily lives were further aggravated by the pandemic. World Food Day is another significant UN commemorative day which follows immediately on 16 October and further ties in the crucial role that rural women play in combating top on the list of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 1 ‘No Poverty’ and SDG2 ‘Zero Hunger’).

Norske Skog's newly elected board of directors is progressing the recapitalization process and will continue to work to develop a sustainable, industrially based recapitalization proposal to the stakeholders of the group. This recapitalization proposal will be based on the current operating performance and outlook for the Norske Skog group, and will seek to provide a robust industrial and financial platform for the future development of the group. The board's current intention is to make public the industrially based recapitalization proposal on Monday 18 September (at 13.00 CET), after which date the group's financial creditors will be expected to have a 10 business day period until 2 October at 17.00 CET to accept or reject the board's proposal. The recapitalization proposal will be based on the recently announced 2017 gross operating earnings estimate of around NOK 700 million. The recapitalization proposal will reduce the group's debt position and interest payments to a level which leaves Norske Skog as an industrial company with a realistic and long term sustainable capital structure to enable future development of the group in a rather challenging international business environment. Click Read More below for additional detail.