Joint administrators of the company, Blair Nimmo and Tony Friar of KPMG, appointed on 27 April on the request of company directors, have issued an Information Memorandum to 14 potential buyers who have signed a confidentiality agreement – and have given them a deadline of 18 May to come back with initial offers.
They are in the process of arranging site visits to the mill, meetings with the company’s senior management team and providing additional information to interested parties.
Nimmo said: “We have been contacted by a number of parties that have expressed an interest in the business, which reflects the company’s long history, strong reputation for high-quality products and the high regard in which it was held by its customers and within the industry.
“Nevertheless, there remain a number of challenges to overcome should a purchaser wish to acquire the business and assets and recommence paper manufacturing.
“We have set an initial closing date for indicative offers for the business and assets for 12pm on 18 May, after which we will be better able to assess the level of interest.
“In the meantime, we would like to thank the company’s staff for their ongoing assistance.”
Speaking to PrintWeek, Nimmo said there had been "a significant level of interest in all aspects of the business" but much of that boiled down to individual assets, stock and machines.
"Some of that seems to be in the business and parts of the business. We've got in order of 20 parties and 14 of them have followed up that process."
He said the 14 were a mixture of investors, trade players and "people just seeing an opportunity" and they were from various countries, although he did not have a breakdown. He added that he was not surprised given the company's long and successful history.
"We don't think we will have lots of offers but we only need one."
Kilmacolm-based paper merchant PG Paper, owned by husband and wife team Puneet and Poonam Gupta is the only business so far to declare its interest publicly. It says it has a turnover of £30m and employs 10 staff in the UK.
The company’s directors asked KPMG to look for a buyer as far back as October 2014. A total of 72 parties, from across the world were approached. These were mainly other paper manufacturers and paper merchants, but none were interested at the time.
Since the Papermakers business was put into administration, the administrators went back to these parties and have also marketed the business for sale to the wider investor community, receiving a number of notes of interest, both for the business and assets as a going concern and for individual assets or brand names.
Meanwhile Scotland’s First Minister has pledged to do “everything that needs to be done” to support redundant Tullis Russell staff during an campaign visit to Glenrothes on Monday as part of a tour of Fife.
The Scottish government and Fife Council set up a joint taskforce to help the area, also on 27 April. An initial £6m has been pledged, part of which can be used to assist the 325 people who have lost their jobs at the mill.
Those interested in acquiring all or parts of the business are encouraged to contact the administrators as soon as possible if they have not already done so.
