JAY – Verso Corporation announced today the sale of a subsidiary energy company to Eagle Creek Renewable Energy LLC, who purchased four hydroelectric generation facilities for $62 million. Those facilities are located in Livermore Falls, Livermore and Jay.
In a statement released today, Verso Corporation said that the sale of Verso Androscoggin Power LLC would not have any impact on operations at Androscoggin mill.
VAP owns the four facilities, the Riley, Jay, Otis and Livermore developments, which are located along 10 miles of the Androscoggin River and provide electrical output to power the pulp and paper mill in Jay. According to the Low Impact Hydropower Institute, the four facilities generate roughly 142,000 Megawatt-hour in an average year. There is no direct connection between the facilities and the power grid.
The announcement comes in the wake of Verso Corporation shutting down two machines and laying off 300 of its 863 workers at the Androscoggin Mill. In November 2015, the company said that it was considering both selling the mill and bankruptcy as possible restructuring alternatives.
In an earnings statement released on Nov. 16, 2015, the company said, “based on our liquidity position as of Sept. 30, 2015, and our projections of operating results and cash flows for the remainder of 2015 and 2016, we believe that there is substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern for the next 12 months.”
However, in the prepared statement released today, Verso said that the sale of VAP is “expected to have no impact on the operations of the Androscoggin mill.”
“The mill purchased electricity from VAP before the transaction,” Verso said in the statement, “and it will continue to do so with VAP now under Eagle Creek’s ownership.”
The company went on to note that the mill now operated its own energy facilities, including two recovery boilers, a biomass boiler, three steam turbines, and three gas turbines. The mill also purchases electricity from Central Maine Power.
“Most importantly,” the statement said, “the sale will not affect the Androscoggin mill’s ability to manufacture its high-quality products and will not cause any interruption in serving its customers.”
Eagle Creek is private company that owns and operates more than 47 hydroelectric facilities nationally. They are headquartered in Morristown, N.J.
Hope this is not another step toward the end
Sounds like the end and end time have been announced.
Verso is in the process of extracting as much cash and assets (and other overhead costs and fees) from the mill prior to cutting it loose either through sale or bankruptcy. Newpage did the same thing with their considerable hydro assets in Wisconsin and Maine before they went through their bankruptcy.
People and governments should be preparing for significant changes before the end of 2016.