11/15/11 Onetime Greenwich Billionaire, Arts Patron Peter Brant's SP Newsprint Files Bankruptcy

Greenwich, Connecticut newsprint maker files Chapter 11

SP Newsprint Co, owned by newsprint magnate and arts patron Peter Brant and which has called itself the fourth-largest North American newsprint manufacturer, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Tuesday.

The filing by the Greenwich, Connecticut-based company and three affiliates follows a Sept. 7 bankruptcy filing by NewPage Corp, which is North America's largest maker of magazine paper and owed by private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP.

SP Newsprint has between $100 million and $500 million of both assets and liabilities, according to its petition filed with the U.S. bankruptcy court in Wilmington, Delaware.

Paper makers have struggled in recent years with rising raw material costs, increased competition from Asia and Europe, and falling demand as more advertisers and readers move online.

Brant has been listed as a billionaire on Forbes magazine's annual list of the richest Americans, though he did not appear on this year's list. His second wife is the supermodel Stephanie Seymour.

The law firm representing SP Newsprint in the bankruptcy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Another of Brant's companies, newsprint manufacturer White Birch Paper Co, filed for bankruptcy protection in February 2010.

The case is In re: SP Newsprint Holdings LLC, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware, No. 11-13649.