13 Sept. 2022: Finnish forestry group Stora Enso said it would sell its Maxau paper production site in Germany to Schwarz Group, the owner of discount supermarket chains Lidl and Kaufland.

The transaction is part of Stora Enso's plan to divest four of its five remaining paper production sites as it shifts its focus to packaging.

The company expects to book a disposal gain of around €50 million ($50.7 million) on the expected closing of the deal in the first quarter of 2023. The site in Germany has an enterprise value of around €210 million, it said.

'Schwarz's plan is to continue paper production at the site, and the 440 employees belonging to the mill organisation at Maxau will be part of the transaction,' Stora Enso said in a statement.

Seppo Parvi, CFO and head of paper division at Stora Enso, added, “We are very pleased with this agreement, as it fulfils our goal of providing a sustainable long-term future for the Maxau site and its employees. We will continue with the divestment process for the remaining three paper assets; Nymölla, Hylte and Anjala.”
Renewable Packaging

In a strategy update, Stora Enso said it aimed to generate more than 60% of group sales from renewable packaging by the end of the decade.

'By 2030, we aim to have a significantly lower exposure to market pulp and reduce cyclicality by increasing integration and growing in renewable packaging, building solutions as well as new innovative biomaterials in our portfolio,' it said.

Last week, Stora Enso said it had agreed to buy Dutch packaging company De Jong for an enterprise value of €1.02 billion ($1.02 billion).
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