<B>Perkins Completes Deal for Wyant Corp.</B>

Perkins Papers Ltd., a subsidiary of Cascades Inc., reports that its tender offer to acquire all outstanding shares of Wyant Corp., a Quebec-based sanitary products supplier, at a purchase price of $4/share in cash expired. Perkins and Wyant entered into the merger agreement in August.

The company says that 97.5 percent of Wyant’s stock has been tendered.

Perkins Papers is the second largest producer of tissue paper in Canada and the seventh largest in North America. The company operates six mills and converting plants, five in Quebec and one in North Carolina. Its industrial infrastructure includes eight paper machines with a combined annual capacity of 262,000 tons of tissue paper.

Perkins also operates 38 converting units. A large share of its production is converted into finished and semi-finished products such as bathroom tissue, household towels, facial tissue, napkins, and hand towels. The company also produces folding cartons and kraft paper bags.