It appears Domtar will be going private.

The publicly-traded company, which owns the pulp mill in Kamloops, has been sold to Paper Excellence for about $3 billion. Reports indicate the deal is worth $2.8 billion.

Paper Excellence, which is based in Richmond, has announced it has bought shares in Domtar for $55.50.

The sale of the company has been unanimously approved by Domtar’s board of directors, and still needs approval from shareholders. The deal is expected to close sometime in the second half of this year.

It was only a week ago that Domtar confirmed in a news release it was in talks about a potential merger or sale of the company.

Domtar is based in South Carolina and in Montreal and has 6,600 employees in 50 countries. It’s the largest taxpayer in the City of Kamloops with its pulp mill that has about 350 employees.

Kamloops mayor Ken Christian welcomes the ownership change, noting he wants to learn more about Paper Excellence and what its has planned for mill in Kamloops. Meanwhile, the president of Unifor Local 10B, Rene Pellerin, told NL News he was told by the new owners that everything at the Kamloops mill will be staying the same.