Japan's Nippon Paper Group announced on Feb. 17 a deal to buy Paper Australia for up to 700 million Australian dollars (US$455 million), aiming to become one of the industry's top five players.
Japan's second-largest papermaker signed an accord to purchase all shares in Australian Paper from its parent company PaperlinX by May, the company said.
PaperlinX has been seeking buyers for the paper manufacturing operations, aiming to focus on paper trading instead, while Nippon Paper wants to expand its overseas businesses.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2009
