Metsä Board to release capital from its pulp business and to focus on growth in paperboard
Metsä Board has on 1 December 2020 signed an agreement to sell a 30 percent stake in its Husum pulp mill in Sweden. The buyer is the Swedish forest owners’ cooperative (ekonomisk förening) Norra Skog, with whom Metsä Forest Sverige, responsible for Metsä Board’s wood procurement in Sweden, has simultaneously entered into a long-term wood supply agreement. The amendment to the environmental permit for the Husum mill has been approved, and Metsä Board has made the final investment decision on the first phase of the pulp mill renewal. The first phase of the investment includes a new recovery boiler and turbine and its total value is approximately EUR 320 million. Expected start-up for the new recovery boiler and turbine will be in H1 2022. The valuation of the Husum pulp mill (enterprise value) to be applied in the transaction at the time of closing is approximately EUR 875 million, including the completion of the ongoing recovery boiler and turbine investment. The valuation corresponds to a value of approximately EUR 1.2 billion after the completion of the second phase of the pulp mill renewal, i.e. the new fibre line. The transaction will decrease Metsä Board’s net debt by approximately EUR 260 million at the time of closing, and additionally reduce Metsä Board’s financial contribution in the second phase of the pulp mill renewal by approximately EUR 100 million. The closing of the transaction is expected to be in January 2021.