The Hylte site deal and the cancellation of the Anjala divestment close Stora Enso's March 2022 announcement of its intention to sell four of its five paper-producing facilities
Anjala paper site in Finland. (Credit: Stora Enso Oyj)
Finnish paper firm Stora Enso has signed an agreement with Sweden-based sawmill and planing mill company Sweden Timber to divest its paper production site in Hylte, Sweden and all its related assets.
Expected to complete in the first half of this year, the enterprise value of this transaction is around €18m.
Additionally, Stora Enso has unveiled its plans to discontinue the divestment process of its Anjala paper site in Finland.
The Hylte site deal and the cancellation of the Anjala divestment close Stora Enso’s March 2022 announcement of its intention to sell four of its five paper-producing facilities.
The paper firm is focused on long-term growth for its renewable goods in packaging, building solutions, and biomaterials developments in accordance with its business plan.
Stora Enso CFO Seppo Parvi said: “I am pleased that Sweden Timber will continue to serve Hylte’s paper customers with the intent to further develop the operations.
“For the Anjala site, we have concluded that the benefits from retaining the site within the Group exceed the value of explored divestment opportunities.”
According to the firm, the Hylte facility can produce 245,000 tonnes of newsprint paper annually. The deal is anticipated to lower Stora Enso’s yearly sales by about €90m based on 2021 projections.
Stora Enso said that the formed fibre and biocomposite operations of the Packaging Solutions division at the Hylte plant are unaffected by the transaction.
On 1 January 2023, the Anjala paper site and the retained Langerbrugge paper site in Belgium were incorporated into the Packaging Materials division.
Paper production and customer service will continue at the retained Anjala and Langerbrugge plants. There is no immediate effect on production or customer deliveries from the agreement to sell the Hylte paper site to Sweden Timber, the Finnish paper firm added.
The previously announced agreement to sell the Maxau paper facility to Schwartz Produktion is anticipated to be completed at the start of this year.