May 31, 2005. /Lesprom Network/. Abitibi-Consolidated Inc. Chief Executive Officer John Weaver plans to pay down 13% of the company's $4 billion debt over three years with money from asset sales and improved operating cash flow as it cuts costs. The reduction would shave about $40 million from Abitibi's annual interest bill, which was CAD 377 million ($300 million) in 2004. Abitibi, the world's No. 1 newsprint maker, posted losses in six of the last seven quarters as the Canadian dollar's rise reduced revenue from newsprint, which is priced in U.S. dollars. “We are looking at possible asset sales and are focused on additional cash generation,'' Weaver, 59, said in an interview. “We think the right level of debt for us is in the order of less than $3.5 billion. That means we need to pay down $500 million over two or three years.'' Montreal-based Abitibi also has been hurt by shrinking demand for newsprint, which accounts for 55% of revenue, and the effect of overpaying for its CAD 5.8 billion purchase of cross-town rival Donohue Inc. in 2000. The purchase quadrupled the company's long-term debt a year before newsprint prices began a four-year slide. Newsprint recently sold for $585 a ton in North America, about 18% less than in January 2001. To raise money for debt repayments, Weaver said April 27 Abitibi plans to sell timberlands and a paper mill in Ontario in the second quarter. These and other asset sales could raise as much as CAD 300 million over two years, said Brian Bogart, a bond analyst at KDP Investment Advisors Inc. in Montpelier, Vermont.