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MONTREAL, Dec. 10, 2012 /PRNewswire/ – 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.