FORT MILL, SC – Shares of Domtar Inc. hit a nearly two-year high after the pulp and paper producer admitted it was in talks with BC’s Paper Excellence over a possible merger or sale of the company.

Shares of the South Carolina and Montreal company climbed $ 8.27 or 16.6% to $ 57.97 at noon on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Domtar says the talks may or may not lead to a deal.

Paper Excellence, based in Richmond, British Columbia, is a privately held company with annual sales of $ 2.4 billion from the production of more than 2.8 million tonnes of paper at seven manufacturing plants across Canada. It has 2,800 employees.

Domtar is one of North America’s largest manufacturers of uncoated or copier paper and one of the largest pulp manufacturers in the world. It has approximately 6,600 employees in 50 countries and an annual turnover of approximately US $ 3.7 billion.

It has 13 pulp and paper mills and 10 converting plants with an annual production capacity of approximately 2.7 million tonnes of paper and 1.5 million air-dried tonnes of market pulp.

The company sold its personal care business in March to subsidiaries of American Industrial Partners for US $ 920 million.

Founded in 1848 in England to manufacture railway ties and quay piles, it operated a coal tar distillation plant in Nova Scotia in 1903, went public in 1929, and changed its name to Domtar in 1965.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on May 4, 2021.

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