AbitibiBowater Inc., doing business as Resolute Forest Products, has announced that all applicable conditions to its offer for Fibrek Inc. have been satisfied and that it has taken up and accepted for payment the 60,831,859 shares deposited as of 11:59 p.m. on April 11.  The tendered shares represent approximately 46.8% of the currently outstanding Fibrek shares.  As aggregate consideration for the shares, Resolute will distribute approximately 1.7 million newly-issued shares of its common stock and CAD$33.5 million in cash through RFP Acquisition Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary.

The Company also announced that the Bureau de révision et décision (Québec) has issued an order to cease trade, effective immediately, Fibrek's second shareholder rights plan, which its board adopted on April 11.

In addition, in order to allow additional Fibrek shareholders to participate, the Company announced that it has extended to 5:00 p.m. on April 23 the expiry time for its offer.  As further described in the offer circular and other ancillary documentation related to the offer (as amended), Resolute intends to carry out a second step transaction to acquire the Fibrek shares not deposited in the offer.

The offer to acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares of Fibrek made by Resolute, together with RFP Acquisition Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary, is more fully described in the offer circular and other ancillary documentation that Resolute filed on December 15, 2011, on the "SEDAR" website maintained by the Canadian Securities Administrators, as varied and extended. The offer will expire at 5:00 p.m. (Eastern time) on April 23, 2012, unless it is extended by Resolute.