Smurfit-Stone Container Corp., Chicago, IL, sold its consumer packaging assets to private equity group Texas Pacific Group for about $1.04 billion cash. Included are about 6,600 workers, four coated recycled boxboard mills and 39 packaging converting plants in the US and one in Ontario, Canada. The mills are in Middletown, OH, Philadelphia, PA, Santa Clara, CA, and Wabash, IN. The new company is called Altivity Packaging. As well, the Smurfit-MBI corrugated container plant in Pembroke, ON, will be shut by the end of July for the loss of 139 jobs. www.smurfit-stone.net, www.texaspacificgroup.com.

 Texas Pacific Group is also associated with another potential paper industry buy-out. A Reuters report from London in July, quoting the London Sunday Times, said that mining company Anglo American had rejected bid approaches from at least two private-equity consortiums for its paper and packaging division Mondi Ltd., which it plans to list. One consortium, advised by NM Rothschild included US buyout firms Blackstone, Carlyle and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, while the other included Bain Capital and Texas Pacific Group, the Sunday Times said. Anglo American’s Mondi demerger is part of a strategic review to tighten its focus on its mining operations. Mondi has eight mills in South Africa. www.mondi.co.za, www.texaspacificgroup.com.

 Rayonier’s chairman, president and CEO, W. Lee Nutter says he will retire in mid-2007 after 40 years with the company. www.rayonier.com.

 Schweitzer-Mauduit International shut a décor papers machine at its agle Mill, Lee, MA. www.schweitzermauduit.com.

 Bowater announced two new grades. BowLife is a lightweight, uncoated mechanical sheet for business and telephone directories. Basis weights are 22.1-lb and 25.5-lb (24x36 basis). The Thunder Bay, Ontario-made 59-brightness sheet has 40% recycled content. As well, BowHybrid FS is the first sheet in the new family of freesheet hybrid papers now coming out of the Calhoun, TN, conversion. The blend of bleached kraft and bleached mechanical pulps provides “high strength, hefty bulk and high opacity at low basis weights,” says Bowater. It is lightly coated. The basis weight is 42.5 lb so that BowHybrid FS has the thickness and feel of a 50-lb uncoated freesheet using 42% les fiber. www.bowater.com.

Caraustar has introduced a new fiber column form, KlimatePRO™, developed by its mills and adhesives facilities to meet demands for rainresistant column forms. It is inexpensive, light in weight and easy to set and strip. www.caraustar.com. PI