Marcal Paper Mills Reaches Agreement to Emerge from Bankruptcy

Elmwood Park, New Jersey, USA, 18 January 2008 -- /PRNewswire/ -- Marcal Paper Mills, Inc., announced today that the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey has approved the sale of substantially all of the company's assets to an affiliate of NexBank, SSB, as agent under the second lien loan agreement, for the aggregate total of approximately USD 160 million.

Under the terms of the parties' asset purchase agreement, NexBank will form Marcal Paper Mills Inc., LLC, as the purchaser and holder of substantially all of the company's assets free and clear of any interests, claims, encumbrances, and liens. The purchaser has reached agreement with the United Steel Workers on a new collective bargaining agreement and has agreed to pay all of the vendor's claims incurred during the bankruptcy proceeding and honor all customer obligations. The Court-approved sale enables Marcal to emerge from bankruptcy as a new, vibrant, ongoing concern.

About Marcal Paper Mills

Marcal, founded in 1932, is a privately-held business. It employs more than 900 people in its Elmwood Park, New Jersey, and Chicago, Illinois, manufacturing operations. The company annually produces more than 160,000 tons of finished paper products, including bath tissue, kitchen towels, napkins, and facial tissue. Those products are distributed to retail outlets for home consumption and to distributors for away-from-home use in hotels, restaurants, hospitals, offices, and factories. For more than 50 years, Marcal has been a leader in recycling recovered paper as a source of high-grade cellulose fiber for manufacturing tissue products. Each year, Marcal recycles more than 200,000 tons of recovered paper. Marcal's slogan, "Paper from Paper, Not from Trees," (R) symbolizes the commitment of the company to sustainable manufacturing.

Source: Marcal Paper Mills, Inc.