Eastern Pulp and Paper Corp. has mills located in Lincoln and Brewer.

BANGOR (AP) – Officials for another company have indicated they are interested in purchasing abandoned Eastern Pulp and Paper Corp., but it first has to get a federal bankruptcy judge to consider the offer.

Gov. John Baldacci said Monday that he has received terms of a deal from potential buyers and a creditor, but he was not in a position to disclose names or exactly how much they were willing to spend for the mills in Lincoln and Brewer.

Baldacci would say that the offer is greater than $10 million. “I would say it’s a serious proposal,” he said.

The offer has not been solidified because several legal and statutory issues need to be negotiated, Baldacci said, adding that he believes those could be worked out Tuesday in time to request a hearing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court on Wednesday.

According to court documents, the interested creditor is ING Group of Phoenix, which Eastern Pulp already owes $27 million.

The company is fourth in line among secured creditors to collect any payment.

What awaits the state in the next couple of days is a judicial challenge to its attempts to sell Eastern Pulp through U.S. Bankruptcy Court – a place the company was pushed out of more than a week ago.

On March 12, U.S. Bankruptcy Chief Judge James B. Haines ordered that Eastern Pulp’s properties be abandoned after a prospective buyer, Paper Acquisition Corp. of Topsfield, Mass., withdrew an $8.5 million offer.

Haines also ordered that the properties be returned to their previous owner, Joseph Torras Sr. of Amherst, Mass. But the state has maintained the properties under a state of emergency declared by Baldacci.

The order was to become final at midnight Monday unless a creditor or other interested party filed a request for Haines to reconsider it. ING Group filed a request for reconsideration at 5:45 p.m. Monday.

According to bankruptcy attorneys, Haines will have to see an offer from a well-capitalized buyer who can close a sale almost immediately. The offer would have to satisfy Eastern Pulp’s secured creditors and include money to keep the mills maintained until the sale is completed.

ING Group believes it has a buyer, according to court documents, although it admits “there is no guarantee that a sale will actually come to fruition.”

AP-ES-03-23-04 0217EST