International Paper Completes the Sale of Its Brazilian Corrugated Packaging Business

WestRock Company announced that it has completed its previously announced acquisition of substantially all of the assets of Plymouth Packaging, Inc. Plymouth is a corrugated packaging company that derives approximately 70% of its sales from its “Box on Demand” systems and corrugated fanfold, and 30% from traditional corrugated box packaging. This acquisition represents WestRock’s entry into the growing on-demand corrugated packaging market that serves many e-commerce and other custom-packaging applications. The market-leading “Box on Demand” systems are located on the customers’ sites and use fanfold corrugated to produce custom, on-demand corrugated packaging that is accurately sized for any product type according to the customer’s specifications. Click Read More below for additional information.

The Mayr-Melnhof Group has reached an agreement to acquire Kotkamills Group Oyj from the previous owners for an enterprise value of around EUR 425 million; this corresponds to approximately 7.8 times the EBITDA of the last twelve months. With the takeover of Kotkamills, MM Karton will expand its position in the attractive market for virgin fiber board (FBB) and Food Service Board (FSB) and complement its established market position in recycled cardboard. The planned transaction will have an immediate impact on earnings. Kotkamills operates two cardboard/paper machines at the integrated location in Kotka (southern Finland): one FBB / FSB cardboard machine, which was commissioned in 2016 after an investment of more than 180 million EUR, with a current sales volume of around 260,000 t and one planned capacity of 400,000 t; a machine for Saturated Kraft Paper / impregnation paper with a capacity of 170,000 t, which makes the company one of the world's leading suppliers. Kotkamills employs around 500 people and in the last twelve months achieved an EBITDA of around EUR 55 million on sales of around EUR 380 million.

Highlights • Strong delivery from continuing operations against the backdrop of challenging market conditions ◦ Underlying EBITDA of €680 million, down 28% (H1 2022: €942 million) ◦ Basic underlying earnings per share (EPS) of 67.0 euro cents, down 32% (H1 2022: 98.7 euro cents) ◦ Improved cash generated from operations of €554 million (H1 2022: €519 million) ◦ Robust balance sheet at 0.8 times net debt to underlying EBITDA (31 December 2022: 0.5 times) ◦ Return on capital employed (ROCE) of 19.1% (31 December 2022: 23.7%) • Delivering value accretive growth, sustainably ◦ €1.2 billion of expansionary projects on track and on budget ◦ Announced acquisition of Hinton Pulp mill (Canada) • Sale process of Syktyvkar mill ongoing within an evolving political and regulatory environment