16 Aug. 2022: Mondi has agreed to acquire the Duino mill near Trieste, Italy from the Burgo Group for €40m (£33.7m).

The mill currently operates one paper machine producing lightweight coated mechanical paper. Mondi said it plans to convert this machine to produce around 420,000 tonnes per annum of high-quality recycled containerboard, for an estimated investment of around €200m.

“Close to two important export harbours, Duino is ideally located to supply the group’s Corrugated Solutions plants in Central Europe and Turkey as well as to serve the growing local Italian market,” Mondi stated in the announcement of the deal this morning (16 August).

“The containerboard machine will strengthen backward integration in corrugated packaging and provide us with security of supply to better serve our customers.”

Andrew King, group CEO of Mondi, commented: “We are excited by this opportunity to invest in the growth of our packaging business, build on our integrated platform and broaden our geographic reach.”

The acquisition is subject to competition clearance and other closing conditions and completion is expected in the second half of the year.

In 2021, Mondi had revenues of €7bn and underlying EBITDA of €1.2bn from continuing operations and employed 21,000 people worldwide.

Last week it was announced that Mondi had agreed a £1bn-plus deal to sell its biggest operation in Russia. The business had said in May that it would divest its Russian assets due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Mondi’s share price was down by around 1% in early trading, to 1,660p at the time of writing.

Richard Stuart-Turner www.printweek.com