world news - 26.09.2007
Stora Enso sells out in North-America
The transaction concerns seven paper plants in the US and one in
Canada. The aggregate amount of 2.5 billion dollars is made up of 1,500
million dollars in cash, 200 million dollars in securities and a 19.9 %
share of the stock of the new Newpage Holding. That share is worth
about 370 million dollars. Newpage Holding will also assume the
liability for debts to an amount of about 450 million dollars.
The conquest of the North-American market, which started in the year
2000, was a costly business for Stora Enso. Seven years ago the company
paid almost 5 billion euro for the plants. Stora Enso says that the
company's final profit or loss will not be known until the business is
fully wound up.
Mr Jouko Karvinen, the company's chief executive director, says that
this is the first long step towards a concentration of the company's
business and an improvement of its financial results in the long term.
The sale of the North-American business will also allow the company to
concentrate on the European and on growing markets.
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