International Paper completed the previously announced sale of its coated and supercalendered papers business (News, Paper Industry, June 2006) to CMP Holdings LLC, a subsidiary of Verso Paper Holdings LLC, an affiliate of Apollo Management LP, for about  $1.4 billion, subject to certain postclosing adjustments. This includes about $30 million in the form of a 10% limited partnership interest in CMP Investments LP, the parent company of CMP Holdings. This interest includes the right to receive certain additional payments contingent upon the buyer’s achievement of certain investment return hurdles.

In a separate transaction, IP agreed to sell the Sartell Hybrid Poplar Farm to CMP Fiber Farm LLC, a subsidiary of CMP Investments.

The coated and supercalendered papers business, which will be renamed Verso Paper Holdings LLC post-closing, annually produces about 1.7 million tons of coated freesheet and coated groundwood papers for the magazine, catalog and retail insert markets. It includes four paper mills — Jay and Bucksport, ME; Quinnesec, MI; Sartell, MN — and generated $1.6 billion in sales in 2005. Its major brands are Advocate®, Influence®, Liberty™, Savvy®, Trilogy® and Velocity™. The business, which will remain headquartered in Memphis, TN, employs some 3,000 people. www.internationalpaper.com. PI