In the early 1970s, Brant and his cousin, H. Joseph Allen — the son of Murray Brant's business partner — led the company into the manufacturing side of the business and expanded the company into paper mill (converting pulp into paper) ownership purchasing a mill in Rivière-du-Loup, Quebec and partnering with the Washington Post and Dow Jones to purchase a mill in Ashland, Virginia.
[3] The purchase gave Brant control of 22% of the North American newsprint market, second to AbitibiBowater with 43%.
[10] In a court filing around 2007, Brant said the ailing newsprint market and the recession had slashed his net worth to less than $500 million from $1.4 billion that year.
[3] In February 2010, White Birch Paper restructured under Chapter 11 proceedings, due to excessive debt and declining demand for newsprint.
The company emerged from bankruptcy in January 2012 and closed its main pulp and paper mill in Quebec City, sending home more than 600 workers.
SP Newsprint operates two mills in Dublin, Georgia and Newberg, Oregon and 23 recycling facilities.
In 2018, Penske Media Corporation, the parent company of Variety magazine, acquired ARTnews and Art in America from Brant.
[29] He bought his first pieces of art after turning an $8,000 investment into several hundred thousand dollars as a young man.
The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles named Brant to its board of trustees in December 2009.
His collection includes numerous works by Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jeff Koons, Dan Flavin, Glenn Ligon, and Cady Noland.
[33] Brant was a member of the partnership who owned Classic winner Swale, who won both the 1984 Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes and was American Champion Three-Year-Old Colt that year.
[34] In addition, Brant was responsible for bringing stallion Mr. Prospector to Claiborne Farm in Paris, Kentucky.
[38] On July 14, 1995, Brant married model Stephanie Seymour outside of Paris, with gallery owner Tony Shafrazi serving as best man at the ceremony.
He pled guilty to charges of failing to keep records and was sentenced to three months in a federal prison and $200,000 in fines.