Abitibi-Consolidated Norske Skog Revise PanAsia Operations

Abitibi-Consolidated and Norske Skog announced a revision of ownership for PanAsia Paper. The change follows the exit of Hansol Paper last year. The two companies each currently own 50 percent of PanAsia.

The key changes to the Agreement include: - All decisions to change "status quo" will require unanimous approval by both shareholders, each holding three of six Board of Directors seats. - Some changes have been made to the exit provisions to ensure that an exiting shareholder obtains a fair market price for its stake and that the remaining shareholder will have a non-binding right to acquire its stake.

The market area has been redefined to exclude Australasia and PanAsia's option to acquire the Australasian assets of Norske Skog. - PanAsia retains its option to acquire Norske Skog's 33.65 percent stake in Malaysian Newsprint Industries.

PanAsia is the leading newsprint manufacturer in non-Japan Asia. The company is headquartered in Singapore and with four modern newsprint mills in Korea, China and Thailand. PanAsia's total capacity is 1.45 million metric tons, with a market share in non-Japan Asia of about 25 percent.