According to reports in the French media, THLF has proposed to take over the Arjowiggins operations at Bessé-sur-Braye, Bourray and Château-Thierry.
There would be some downsizing at two of the sites as part of the proposals.
THLF was incorporated in the UK in November 2018. It has two directors: Lars-Owe Forsberg and Terje Haglund.
Haglund is also the chief executive of Virginal Paper and was involved with two takeovers of insolvent paper mills last year, Zanders and the former Idempapers mill in Belgium.
The Arjowiggins French businesses went into receivership in January. Bids for the operations have to be received by the court by 1 March.
Local reports said that another potential bid by a management team at Bessé-sur-Braye had been withdrawn due to a lack of funding.
It’s not clear whether THLF could also be interested in any of the UK-based Arjowiggins operations that went into administration on 15 January.
The businesses: Arjowiggins Fine Papers, Arjowiggins Chartham, Performance Papers, Arjobex and the Wiggins Teape Group continue to trade.
The largest operation is the historic Stoneywood Mill in Aberdeenshire, employing nearly 500 staff.
Last week Arjowiggins Creative Papers tweeted a message of thanks for the support the company had received over the intervening weeks.
Many thanks for all the support received these past few weeks. Our mills in the UK and Spain are up and running and our aim is business as usual.
— Arjowiggins Creative (@ArjoCreatives) February 13, 2019
All of us and our distributors are more than ever at your service to make our beautiful papers available for your projects. pic.twitter.com/L0sqCDjI4o
PrintWeek could not reach Haglund or Forsberg for comment at the time of writing.
