Stora Enso completes the divestment of its Hylte paper site to Sweden Timber

Stora Enso has completed the divestment of its paper production site in Hylte, Sweden, announced on 27 January 2023, and all related assets to Sweden Timber, a Sweden-based sawmill and planning mill company. The enterprise value of the transaction is approximately EUR 18 million and will result in the reduction of Stora Enso's annual newsprint paper capacity by 245,000 tonnes. Using 2022 figures as a benchmark, the divestment is expected to reduce Stora Enso's annual sales by approximately EUR 160 million.

As announced earlier, Stora Enso will book a disposal loss of approximately EUR 35 million, in addition to an impairment loss of EUR 19 million recorded in Q4/2022 in its IFRS operating profit in Q2/2023, as an item affecting comparability. The final value will be subject to closing date adjustments.

The transaction, part of the earlier announced plan to divest four of Stora Enso's five paper production sites, does not affect Stora Enso's formed fiber and biocomposite operations located at the Hylte site.

The paper operations divestment plan was concluded on 27 January 2023 when Stora Enso announced the agreement to divest the Hylte site and to discontinue the divestment process of the Anjala paper production site in Finland. The divestment of the Nymölla paper site in Sweden was completed on 2 January with ownership transferred to Sylvamo while the divestment of the Maxau paper site in Germany to Schwarz Produktion was completed on 1 March. Stora Enso's Paper division was discontinued as of 1 January 2023, with the retained Langerbrugge (Belgium) and Anjala paper production sites being integrated into the Packaging Materials division reporting.

In line with its strategy, Stora Enso's focus moving forward is on the long-term growth potential for its renewable products in packaging, building solutions, and biomaterials innovations.