Besicorp Takes Step in Financing

Besicorp-Empire Newsprint, LLC announced the appointment of HSH Nordbank AG, New York Branch, as lead arranger for financing of its recycled newsprint facility project. The company has been working for the past several years with Rensselaer, N.Y., on building a facility that would recycle old newspaper and old magazines into finished newsprint. The company would sell the finished newsprint to newspaper publishers in the New England and Mid-Atlantic region.

HSH Nordbank is headquartered in Germany. As lead arranger, HSH Nordbank will assist in structuring the project financing, and will assemble a group of underwriters and lenders to finance the project.

The Project is targeting the first half of 2005 to achieve a financial close and to commence construction, which will take about two years. The Project is now fully permitted after almost 5 years of development effort. Detailed engineering and selection of major equipment vendors is nearing completion. The Project is being engineered and constructed by KSH Solutions, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of RWE Industrie-Losungen GmbH.