Business Management - Finance/Financial

St. Marys Paper is in receivership after the papermaker’s longtime insurer pulled its coverage. With the mill unable to find another carrier, its first secured party, International Forest Products, petitioned to have St. Marys put into receivership, said CEO Dennis Bunnell.

“I really believe this mill could be revived and operate,” said Bunnell.

St. Marys went bankrupt in 2007 and was purchased months later by a local group of investors.

Equipment problems and difficult market conditions have meant little work for the super-calendar producer’s more than 300 employees. St. Marys has only been operational four months in the last two years.

Catalyst Paper posted a net loss of $205.7 million on sales of $340.3 million during the third quarter of 2011. The loss was largely due to a $151.0 million impairment charge for the write-down of its Snowflake facility.

The recent bankruptcy court filings by NewPage have been blessings for some and curses for others. Here's a look at the scorecard two weeks after the big U.S. paper company went Chapter 11: Loser #1) Port Hawkesbury employees: NewPage has basically deep-sixed its money-losing Canadian mill, walking away from severance obligations and an underfunded pension plan, not using any of its debtor-in-possession funds to keep the mill running, and leaving many suppliers holding the bag.

NewPage has put the mill up for sale but also revealed that it loses $4 million per month on the operation. Unless the muscle-bound Canadian

Cascades executives recently inaugurated the addition of $3.7 million in new deinking equipment at the Cascades Fine Papers Group, Breakey Fibres mill. Focused on producing deinked kraft pulp of the highest quality, this strategic investment will drive improvements in the quality of Cascades’ fine papers, while also protecting jobs.

North America’s largest manufacturer of coated paper acknowledged that it may be forced to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization because of its crushing debt load. NewPage made no reference to reorganization in the news release announcing another quarter of losses. But the 10-Q quarterly financial report it filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission later in the day contained this statement:

“If we are unable to refinance our debt or generate sufficient cash flow to service our obligations, we will be required to seek to restructure our existing debt or to voluntarily seek...protection under the Chapter 11

If you like gambling, forget blackjack, horses or the lottery. The debt of NewPage Corp. is the hot item these days at that grand casino known as Wall Street, as speculators wager on whether the big paper manufacturer will be able to make its bond payments and stay out of bankruptcy court.

On several days recently, the company’s bonds have been the most heavily traded debt instruments in the U.S.

The betting turned sour this week as the company’s bond prices hit their lowest level in more than two years “on concern that the junk-rated coated-paper maker owned by Cerberus Capital Management

SUSSEX, WI—Quad/Graphics Inc. reported results for its fourth quarter ending Dec. 31, 2010, which reflect the July 2, 2010, acquisition of Worldcolor. For the sake of comparisons, references to pro forma measures assume that the acquisition of Worldcolor was completed on Jan. 1, 2009.

CHICAGO—RR Donnelley reported fourth-quarter net earnings attributable to common shareholders of $27 million on net sales of $2.7 billion, compared to a net loss attributable to common shareholders of $79.5 million on net sales of $2.6 billion in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Full-year 2010 sales were $7.187 billion, a 6 percent decrease from the prior year. For the fourth quarter of 2010, the company reported revenues of $1.927 billion, a 25 percent decrease from the year-ago quarter. Graphic Communications Group full-year 2010 sales were $2.681 billion, a 2 percent decline.

Top performing printers achieved over 84 percent print buyer satisfaction, average performers 74 percent to 83 percent, and low performers under 74 percent. The following group of category leaders achieved over 90 percent, with the best overall obtaining 96 percent satisfaction: