Stora Enso to acquire forest assets in Bergvik Skog

The forest assets of Swedish forest holding company Bergvik Skog are owned by its subsidiaries Bergvik Väst and Bergvik Öst, split 83/17 percent of these shares, respectively. As a result of this transaction, Stora Enso will transform its current ownership of 49.8 percent in Bergvik Skog, to a direct holding of 69.8 percent of the value of the forest assets in Bergvik Väst.

Stora Enso’s forest holdings in Sweden will increase to 1.4 million hectares, of which 1.15 million hectares is productive forest land. The total value of the transaction in Stora Enso’s balance sheet is estimated to be approximately €1 billion ($1.14 billion USD).

The deal is part of Bergvik Skog’s efforts to restructure its ownership. With this agreement, the parties aim to complete the transaction during the first half of 2019.

Stora Enso CEO Karl-Henrik Sundström said: ‘I am pleased that we have taken a step forward in this ownership restructuring along with the other shareholders in Bergvik Skog. This transaction is a natural next step for us, as we strongly believe in the bioeconomy and want to secure our competitive raw material supply for the long term. With direct ownership, we will have better visibility of our wood supply in Sweden. This will give us better opportunities to further develop sustainable forest management, thus strengthening our competitiveness.’

Bergvik Skog is currently reported as an equity accounted investment by Stora Enso. Upon closure of the deal, Stora Enso’s Swedish forest assets will be placed in a fully owned subsidiary and then consolidated line by line in Stora Enso’s results.