Stora Enso sells paper mill to German owner Lidl Schwarz Group

A Stora Enso company logo outside a packaging plant in Riga, Latvia on September 18, 2012. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins/File Photo

HELSINKI, 13 September. (Reuters) – Finnish timber group Stora Enso (STERV.HE) said on Tuesday it would sell its Maxau paper mill in Germany to the Schwarz Group, which owns discount supermarket chains Lidl GB and Kaufland.

The deal is part of Stora Enso’s plan to sell four of its five remaining paper operations as the company shifts its focus to packaging.

The company expects to record a gain on disposal of around €50 million ($50.7 million) due to the expected closing of the transaction in the first quarter of 2023. The cost of the enterprise in Germany is about 210 million euros, the report said.

“Schwarz’s plan is to continue paper production at the facility and the 440 employees at the Maxau mill will be part of the deal,” Stora Enso said in a statement.

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

“By 2030, we aim to significantly reduce the impact of market pulp and reduce cyclicality through increased integration and growth in renewable packaging, building solutions, and new innovative biomaterials in our portfolio,” the statement says.

Last week, Stora Enso announced it had agreed to buy Dutch packaging company De Jong for 1.02 billion euros ($1.02 billion).

($1 = €0.9867)

Reporting by Anna Kauranen; editing Kirsten Donovan

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