Abitibi-Consolidated Completes Offering

Abitibi-Consolidated Company of Canada (ACCC), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Abitibi-Consolidated Inc. (Abitibi), completed on March 28, 2005 a public offering in the US of US$450 million 8.375 per cent notes due April 1, 2015, unconditionally guaranteed as to payment by Abitibi, under its shelf prospectus dated March 9, 2005. The net proceeds from the offering were used to fund the repurchase of US$337 million aggregate principal amount of Abitibi’s 8.30 per cent notes due August 1, 2005, and US$100 million aggregate principal amount of ACCC’s 6.95 per cent notes due December 15, 2006 tendered pursuant to tender offers launched on March 3, 2005 and to pay premiums, accrued interest and fees and expenses related thereto.

The transaction was led by Thierry Brossard, in-house counsel at Abitibi, assisted by in-house counsels Mélanie Allaire and Laila Sahyoun. In the context of the offering and the tender offers, Stikeman Elliott LLP was Canadian counsel for Abitibi and ACCC with a team comprised of Pierre Raymond, Louis Morisset, Ian Putnam and Frédéric Brassard (corporate and securities) and Richard Rusk (environment). Edwin Maynard, Valérie Demont and Ndidi Oriji of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP acted as US counsel to Abitibi and ACCC.

The dealer managers under the tender offers and the underwriters on the offering, led by Citigroup as lead book runner and Credit Suisse First Boston as joint book runner, were advised by Christopher Cummings, Adam Givertz, Carole Dagher and Mark Lanpher of Shearman & Sterling LLP.