Post-Closing Purchase Price Adjustment 1.9.1 Within ninety (90) days following the Closing Date, Seller shall prepare, or cause to be prepared, and deliver to Purchaser a statement (the “Closing Net Working Capital Statement”) which shall set forth the Net Working Capital of the Newsprint Business and of Apache as of the Closing Time (which shall be set forth separately for each of the Newsprint Business and Apache, but as aggregated shall be referred to as the “Closing Net Working Capital”) and shall be prepared in accordance with Seller’s past accounting methods, policies, practices and procedures and in the same manner, with consistent classification and estimation methodology, as the Financial Statements were prepared, except that the Excluded Assets and the Newsprint Retained Obligations shall be excluded. The Closing Net Working Capital Statement may not be amended by Seller after it is delivered to Purchaser.
1.9.2 Purchaser shall, within thirty (30) days after the delivery of the Closing Net Working Capital Statement to it, complete its review of the Closing Net Working Capital reflected on the Closing Net Working Capital Statement. If Purchaser wishes to dispute the Closing Net Working Capital, Purchaser shall notify Seller in writing in reasonable detail of such disagreement and any reason therefore (“Purchaser’s Objection”), setting forth a specific description of the basis of Purchaser’s Objection and the adjustments to the Closing Net Working Capital that Purchaser believes should be made, on or before the last day of such thirty (30) day period, which Purchaser’s Objection may not be amended by Purchaser after it is delivered to Seller (except to withdraw any such Purchaser’s Objection). Any items on the Closing Net Working Capital Statements not disputed in Purchaser’s Objection shall be irrevocably deemed to be accepted by Purchaser. Seller shall then have thirty (30) days to review and respond to Purchaser’s Objection. If Seller and Purchaser are unable to resolve all of their disagreements with respect to the determination of the foregoing items within thirty (30) days following Seller’s receipt of Purchaser’s Objection (the “Negotiation Period”), they shall refer their remaining differences to a mutually agreeable independent accounting firm of national recognition (other than an independent accounting firm utilized by any of Seller, Apache or Purchaser or any Affiliate of any of the foregoing within the past three (3) years) acceptable to both Seller and Purchaser or if Seller and Purchaser are unable to agree as to such third party accounting firm within ten (10) days after the conclusion of the Negotiation Period, either Seller or Purchaser may request that the Chairman of the American Arbitration Association (or the nominated representative of the Chairman) appoint a third party accounting firm meeting the aforementioned requirements to resolve the dispute (the accounting firm selected being referred to as the “CPA Firm”), who shall determine, only with respect to the remaining differences so submitted, whether and to what extent, if any, the Closing Net Working Capital requires adjustment. The procedure and schedule under which any dispute shall be submitted to the CPA Firm shall be as follows:
(a) Within ten (10) days after the later of (i) the end of the Negotiation Period and (ii) the selection of the CPA Firm, Purchaser shall submit any unresolved elements of the Purchaser’s Objection to the CPA Firm in writing (with a copy to Seller), supported by any documents and/or affidavits upon which it relies. Failure to timely do so shall constitute a withdrawal by Purchaser of the Purchaser’s Objection with respect to any unresolved element to which such failure relates.
(b) Within fifteen (15) days following Purchaser’s submission of the unresolved elements of the Purchaser’s Objection as specified in sub-clause (a) above, Seller shall submit its response to the CPA Firm in writing (with a copy to Purchaser), supported by any documents and/or affidavits upon which it relies. Failure to timely do so shall constitute an acceptance by Seller with respect to any unresolved elements to which such failure relates.
(c) The CPA Firm shall deliver its written determination to Purchaser and Seller no later than the thirtieth (30th) day after the remaining differences underlying Purchaser’s Objection are referred to the CPA Firm, or such longer period of time as the CPA Firm determines is necessary.
Purchase Price Adjustments (a) The Parties agree that, so long as any distributions made are reflected in Closing Working Capital and in any adjustments to the Purchase Price under Section 1.4(c), the Seller shall have the right, at or prior to the Closing, to cause the Company to distribute cash to the Seller or its Affiliates, by one or more dividends and/or other distributions.
(b) Within 90 calendar days following the Closing, the Buyer shall prepare, or cause to be prepared, and deliver to the Seller a statement (the “Closing Statement”), in accordance with the Accounting Principles, which shall include (i) a balance sheet of the Company as of the Closing Date, (ii) a calculation of the total Working Capital of the Company as of the Closing Date (the “Closing Working Capital”), (iii) a calculation of the Working Capital Deficit or the Working Capital Excess, as the case may be (which, for the avoidance of doubt, shall include the Buyer’s calculation of the Target Working Capital), (iv) a calculation of Closing Cash, (v) a calculation of Closing Indebtedness, (vi) a calculation of Transaction Expenses and (vii) the Buyer’s determination of the final Purchase Price (the “Final Purchase Price”) resulting therefrom. For purposes of the Buyer’s preparation of the Closing Statement, the Seller shall make available or provide reasonable access to the Buyer and its Representatives, upon advance notice and during normal business hours, all information, books, records, data and working papers created or used in connection with the preparation of the Estimated Working Capital Certificate, to the extent not in the possession of the Company or the Buyer. The Seller shall have a period of 30 calendar days after delivery of the Closing Statement to review (and cause the Seller’s auditors to review) such documents and make any objections it may have in writing to the Buyer. For purposes of the Seller’s evaluation of the Closing Statement, the Buyer shall, and shall cause the Company to, make available or provide reasonable access to the Seller and its Representatives, upon advance notice and during normal business hours, all information, books, records, data and working papers created or used in connection with the preparation of the Closing Statement; and shall permit reasonable access, upon advance notice and during normal business hours, to the facilities and personnel of the Company as may be reasonably requested by the Seller and its Representatives to analyze the Closing Statement. If the Seller delivers written objections to the Buyer within such 30-day period, then the Buyer and the Seller shall attempt to resolve the matter or matters in dispute. If no written objections are made by the Seller within such 30-day period, then the Closing Statement shall be final and binding on the Parties. If disputes with respect to the Closing Statement cannot be resolved by the Buyer and the Seller within 30 calendar days after timely delivery of any objections thereto, then, at the request of the Buyer or the Seller, the specific matters in dispute (but no others) shall be submitted to such independent accounting firm as may be approved by the Seller and the Buyer (the “Auditors”), which firm shall render its opinion as to such specific matters. If no such referral is made within 45 calendar days after the delivery of the objections, then the Closing Statement shall be final and binding on the Parties. If all objections are so resolved between the Parties prior to such time, the Closing Statement with such changes as have been agreed in writing by the Buyer and the Seller shall be final and binding on the Parties. The matters to be resolved by the Auditors shall be limited to the remaining unresolved disputes between the Buyer and the Seller. The Parties shall cooperate with the Auditors during its engagement, and the Auditors shall have access to the books and records of the Company and the Buyer, the personnel of, and work papers prepared by, the Parties’ accountants to the extent that they relate to the unresolved disputes as it may reasonably request for the purpose of reviewing such unresolved disputes, provided, that such access shall be in a manner that does not interfere with the normal business operations of the Buyer, the Company or the Seller. The Auditors shall promptly deliver to the Buyer and the Seller a written report setting forth their resolution of the disputes along with their determination of the Final Purchase Price, which determination shall be made in accordance with the definitions and principles set forth in this Agreement and shall be final and binding on the Parties. As to each disputed item, the Auditors shall be limited to awarding only one or the other of the Buyer’s proposal, on the one hand, or the Seller’s proposal, on the other hand, and shall have no authority to select or propose to the Parties any resolution other than as set forth in one of such two proposals originally submitted to the Auditors. Judgment may be entered upon the determination of the Auditors in any court having jurisdiction over the Party against which such determination is to be enforced. The fees and expenses of the Auditors shall be borne by the Parties as designated by the Auditors, which designation shall be based upon the inverse proportion of the amount of disputed items resolved in favor of such Party (i.e., so that the prevailing Party bears a lesser amount of such fees and expenses). If the Parties refer a dispute to the Auditors and if the Adjustment Escrow Funds exceed the amount by which the Estimated Purchase Price is greater than the Final Purchase Price (as claimed by the Buyer), then the Buyer and the Seller shall, pursuant to the terms of the Escrow Agreement, promptly instruct the Escrow Agent to pay the Seller the amount of such excess out of the Adjustment Escrow Funds, and the remaining balance of the Adjustment Escrow Funds shall be paid out pursuant to Section 1.4(c) after the final determination of the Final Purchase Price pursuant to this Section 1.4.
(c) If the Estimated Purchase Price is greater than the Final Purchase Price, then within two business days following the final determination thereof, the Buyer and the Seller shall, pursuant to the terms of the Escrow Agreement, instruct the Escrow Agent to pay the Buyer the amount of such excess out of the Adjustment Escrow Funds (and if the balance of the Adjustment Escrow Funds is less than the amount due to the Buyer pursuant to this Section 1.4, then at the Buyer’s option the Buyer may recover the remaining amount from the Indemnity Escrow Funds or require the Seller to pay such amount to the Buyer by wire transfer in immediately available funds to the account or accounts designated by the Buyer). If the Final Purchase Price is greater than the Estimated Purchase Price, then within two business days following the final determination thereof, the Buyer will pay to the Seller by wire transfer in immediately available funds to the account or accounts designated by the Seller the amount of such excess and the Buyer and the Seller shall, pursuant to the terms of the Escrow Agreement, instruct the Escrow Agent to pay the Seller the entire balance of the Adjustment Escrow Funds. Any payments pursuant to this Section 1.4(c) shall be treated as an adjustment to the Purchase Price by the parties for Tax purposes, unless otherwise required by Law.