Neenah paper Inc., said I May that it had signed an agreement to sell its Pictou, Nova Scotia, pulp mill and associated woodlands to Northern Pulp Nova Scotia Corp, a new operating company of Atlas Holdings LLC, Greenwich, CT, and Blue Wolf Capital Management LLC, New York, NY.

Atlas owns four paper mills and nine packaging plants in North America. The two companies have a joint interest in Finch Paper Holdings which owns Finch Paper LLC.

The one-machine mill's capacity is about 270,000 tonnes/year; most of its production in 2007 was NBSK. It uses wood chips as furnish.

Neenah retains some 500,000 acres of woodlands it owns in Nova Scotia.

Neenah expects to pay $15 to $20 million to Northern Pulp to help it move to stand-alone status. However, it expects to be over $20 million "cash positive as a result of tax benefits that result from the write-off and sale of the mill," said Sean Erwin, Neenah's CEO and board chairman.

The existing management team will stay and hold equity in the company. Keith L. Johnson will continue as general manager.