The agreement to sell three of Sappi’s European graphic paper mills to the Aurelius Group lapses

Sappi received binding offers from several parties for these three mills. Following due process, the board of Sappi agreed to accept the offer from Aurelius Group, a pan-European multi-asset manager group. The transaction was subject to various standard suspensive conditions.

Steve Binnie, CEO of Sappi Limited commented: “Regretfully, and despite extensive efforts by Sappi to close the transaction the parties could not agree on fulfilling the suspensive conditions. Therefore, the transaction has lapsed. Sappi’s strategic focus remains unchanged. This includes reducing exposure to the graphic paper segment while expanding Sappi’s presence in segments including packaging and speciality papers, pulp and biomaterials.”

Marco Eikelenboom, CEO of Sappi Europe stated: “Sappi Europe will continue to manage the three mills as part of our overall portfolio, ensuring that they continue delivering value to the region and to the customers they supply.”

The mills included:

• Sappi Maastricht Mill produces 260,000 ton per annum (tpa) of coated woodfree paper and paperboard mainly sold to printers and packaging converters globally
• Sappi Stockstadt Mill is an integrated pulp and paper mill located in Germany, producing 145,000 tpa of pulp which is used to produce 220,000 tpa of coated and uncoated woodfree paper mainly sold into the European print market.
• Sappi Kirkniemi Mill is an integrated pulp and paper mill located in Finland, producing 300,000 tpa of bleached mechanical pulp which is used to produce approximately 750 000 tpa of a variety of coated mechanical paper grades used in the print publication industry globally.