Did Verso Come to Purchase NewPage or to Bury It?

Rather than engaging in a good-faith effort to forge a union between North America’s two largest makers of magazine-quality paper, NewPage said, Verso’s owners are engaging in “tactics of holdup and delay” to weaken NewPage and hinder its emergence from bankruptcy protection.

NewPage’s bankruptcy case presents Verso “with both significant opportunities and risks,” an attorney representing holders of first-lien debt wrote to the bankruptcy court today.

NewPage is eager to exit Chapter 11 and hopes to file a plan of reorganization within 30 days, but says a proposed merger with Verso would undergo an antitrust review of at least six months.