PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A deal to revive a pair of idled Maine paper mills and put hundreds of people back to work has been completed.

Maine Gov. Paul LePage and a New Hampshire-based investor group on Friday announced the sale of the two Katahdin (kuh-TAH’-dihn) region mill properties. They say the deal could put 250 people back to work by mid-October in the Millinocket area.

The deal enables Cate Street Capital to revive the Great Northern Paper Co. name the Millinocket and East Millinocket mills held during their glory days.

The Portsmouth, N.H., group hasn’t disclosed the purchase price. It plans to have employees working to reopen the East Millinocket mill Monday and ship out the first order of newsprint to overseas markets by the end of October.

The new company will be called Great Northern Paper Co. LLC.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.