Montreal, Quebec, Canada 10 December 2012/CNW Telbec/ -- Resolute Forest Products Inc. (NYSE: RFP) (TSX: RFP) today announced that the province of Nova Scotia, represented by the minister of the Department of Economic and Rural Development and Tourism, has completed the purchase of all the shares of Bowater Mersey Paper Company Limited for nominal consideration.

Bowater Mersey is the former joint venture between Resolute (51%) and The Washington Post Company (49%), formed to hold the Mersey newsprint mill, located in Brooklyn, Nova Scotia, and other associated assets, including private timberlands, the Oakhill sawmill and Brooklyn Power Corporation. Resolute operated the Mersey newsprint mill until it was indefinitely idled in June of 2012.

Before closing the transaction, Resolute purchased from Bowater Mersey the assets associated with the Oakhill sawmill and, in connection with the closing, certain components of the paper mill, which can no longer be used to make paper. At closing, Resolute received a cash payment of approximately $18 million, representing a reimbursement of working capital advances by Resolute to Bowater Mersey to fund its operations, net of transaction-related items.

About Resolute Forest Products

Resolute Forest Products is a global leader in the forest products industry with a diverse range of products, including newsprint, commercial printing papers, market pulp and wood products. The Company owns or operates 21 pulp and paper mills and 22 wood products facilities in the United States, Canada and South Korea. Marketing its products in close to 80 countries, Resolute has third-party certified 100% of its managed woodlands to sustainable forest management standards. The shares of Resolute Forest Products trade under the stock symbol RFP on both the New York Stock Exchange and the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Resolute and other member companies of the Forest Products Association of Canada, as well as a number of environmental organizations, are partners in the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement. The group works to identify solutions to conservation issues that meet the goal of balancing equally the three pillars of sustainability linked to human activities: environmental, social and economic. Resolute is also a member of the World Wildlife Fund's Climate Savers program, in which businesses establish ambitious targets to voluntarily reduce greenhouse gas emissions and work aggressively toward achieving them.

SOURCE: RESOLUTE FOREST PRODUCTS INC.