INVESTMENTS

Equity Method Investments

As of March 26, 2017, our investments in joint ventures of $16.5 million consisted of equity ownership interests in the following entities:



Company	Approximate % Ownership
Donohue Malbaie Inc.	49	%
Madison Paper Industries	40	%
Women in the World Media, LLC	30	%

We have investments in Donohue Malbaie Inc. (“Malbaie”), a Canadian newsprint company, Madison Paper Industries (“Madison”), a partnership that previously operated a supercalendered paper mill in Maine, and Women in the World Media, LLC, a live-event conference business.

The Company and UPM-Kymmene Corporation (“UPM”), a Finnish paper manufacturing company, are partners through subsidiary companies in Madison. The Company’s 40% ownership of Madison is through an 80%-owned consolidated subsidiary which owns 50% of Madison. UPM owns 60% of Madison, including a 10% interest through a 20% noncontrolling interest in the consolidated subsidiary of the Company. In March 2016, UPM announced the closure of the paper mill, which occurred in May 2016. During the first quarter of 2016, we recognized $41.4 million loss from joint ventures related to the announced closure of the paper mill. Our proportionate share of the loss is reduced by the 20% noncontrolling interest. As a result of the mill closure, we wrote our investment down to zero and recorded a liability of $28.8 million, reflecting our share of the losses incurred to date by Madison. These amounts are presented in “Accrued expenses and other” in our Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets.

The Company’s joint venture in Madison is currently being liquidated. In the fourth quarter of 2016, Madison sold certain assets at the mill site and we recognized a gain of $3.9 million related to the sale. In April 2017, Madison entered into an agreement to sell the remaining assets at the mill site (consisting of hydro power assets). We expect the sale of the hydro power assets to be completed later this year and we believe the proceeds from the sale will be more than sufficient to cover Madison’s obligations and therefore allow us to reverse our liability at that time.

We received no distributions from our equity method investments during the the first quarters of 2017 and 2016.

We purchase newsprint from Malbaie, and previously purchased supercalendered paper from Madison, at competitive prices. Such purchases totaled approximately $3 million in the first quarters of 2017 and 2016.

The following table presents summarized income statement information for Madison, which follows a calendar year:



	For the Quarters Ended
(In thousands)	March 31, 2017			March 31, 2016
Revenues	$	—		$	25,179
Costs and expenses:
Cost of sales	(1,054		)	(48,935		)
General and administrative	(26		)	(63,101		)
	(1,080		)	(112,036		)
Operating loss	(1,080		)	(86,857		)
Other (expense)/income	(2		)	1
Net loss	$	(1,082	)	$	(86,856	)

Cost Method Investments

The aggregate carrying amounts of cost method investments included in “Miscellaneous assets’’ in our Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets were $13.7 million and $13.6 million for March 26, 2017 and December 25, 2016, respectively.