General Discussion Topics, page-93327

Irrespective of this statement which seems based on ' OLD ' information - ie from a meeting in January 2022.

Since then of course Paper Excellence a ' Privately ' held Indonesian paper products company had been waiting on Canada's Competition Bureau approval to acquire Resolute through its wholly owned subsidiary Domtar Corp ....which was finally approved on 28th December 2022 some 11 months after this alleged meeting with the Union Boss.

Now while the only constraints or caveats over their ( Paper Excellence's ) proposed takeover were that they sell their pulp mill in Dryden Ontario as well as divest its Thunder Bay pulp and paper mill , I wouldn't be expecting any ' Favors ' from a.) a privately held Company , and b.) one which is held tightly by the Indonesian Billionaire family headed up Jackson Widjaja.

There is the other points as well that while Resolute had been the beneficiary of certain low interest loans from Quebec back in its earlier emergence days of Chapter 11 , one could argue that there is something owed here and almost ' secured ' in those terms in regards to employee redundancies and other benefits which had to be set aside , and were stated as representing as much as US $1.1 billion.

So while Quebec and the Unions would appear to have a certain amount of leverage to ' favors ' if you like with regards to the disposal of this site , one might also have to consider that this takeover DID NOT include the ' Multi Year ' lumber duties withheld by the United States and which have been accruing since 2017 , and which if settled eventually by the courts would have to ALSO go to the Resolute Forests shareholders as per the agreed ' contingent value rights ' based on the anticipated refunds of US$500 Million .

So the good Mr. Widjaja will be looking on and no doubt scrutinising any of his disposals with a keen eye for recovering as much as he can net of any favors he might be expected to cooperate with respects to his continuing businesses in Quebec which include the not all that far away Gatineau Newsprint Mill which he had been considering halting but instead will likely convert it a paper manufacturing plant.

On the other hand there has been some concerns around Mr Widjaja's other business interests in the Company Sinar Mas who own through Asia Pulp & Paper and who don't really have what appears to be a great track record when it comes to the environment so will have a lot to prove to Canada and Quebec in terms of convincing them of his good standing corporate citizenship which he claims is impeccable.

So a lot going on here with the ink on this takeover only just drying from the approval of the Canadian Competition authorities and these comments being much much older than these more current events.