When the restructuring of the ownership of Metsä Fibre is completed, M-real will own 24.9%, Metsäliitto Cooperative will own 50.2%, and Itochu Corp. will own 24.9% of the company.
Divestment of the 7.3 percentage point shareholding in Metsä Fibre is being done to reduce M-real's pulp surplus and to further strengthen Metsä Fibre's business, especially in the growing Asian market. Once the transaction is completed, M-real's pulp surplus reduces from approximately 0.5 million metric tpy to 0.3 million metric tpy.
After the 0.5 percentage point reduction of shareholding in Pohjolan Voima, M-real owns approximately 2% of the company.
"We are reducing our pulp surplus according to our strategy. The transaction with Itochu provides an excellent possibility to develop Metsä Fibre further and shows also the great value of our pulp assets. Also in the future we will produce more pulp than we use, thus we continue to have a good platform to grow our profitable paperboard business. These divestments also strengthen the company's liquidity without having a material impact on our operating cash flow," M-real's CEO Mikko Helander said.
Itochu Corp. is one of the largest trading companies in Japan with approximately 130 bases in different industries in close to 70 countries. Itochu Corp.'s trading volume for the fiscal year ended on March 31 exceeded EUR 100 billion.
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