Norwegian Orkla has confirmed its plans to divest Borregaard biorefinery group, headquartered in Sarpsborg in southern Norway and with production plants in several countries.”We are planning to introduce Borregaard to the Oslo stock exchange as an independent company during 2012, but we are also willing to sell Borregaard to an industrial player,” Johan Christian Hovland, Communications director in Orkla, told Norwegian media.UPM is one of three non-Norwegian companies mentioned by Norwegian media as a potential buyer. The other two are chemical giant Bayer and American Buckeye Technologies.UPM does not want to comment on the information in Norwegian media. ”This is speculation, and UPM's policy is that we do not comment on any market or other speculations,” a UPM spokesperson told Nordic Paper Journal.There are also two Norwegian groups of investors, who have delcared an interest to acquire Borregaard. One is a group of investors headed by Jens P Heyerdal, formerly CEO of Orkla, and the other group is a consortium in the Norwegian bank and finance sector, according to the Norwegian business daily, Dagens Næringsliv.Borregaard produces speciality cellulose and green chemicals.