Segezha Group revealed the cost of selling factories in Europe

Timber holding Segezha has sold paper packaging plants in Europe to Segezha Packaging for approximately 100 million euros. This was announced at a briefing by the group’s president, Mikhail Shamolin, writes RBC.

“The deal was completed for about $1 (in euros), but with a debt of 100 million euros, which remained with Segezha Packaging in front of the Segezha Pulp and Paper Mill (pulp and paper mill. – Vedomosti). That is, we can say that the business was sold for an amount of about €100 million, which corresponds to its assessment in the state before [введения антироссийских] sanctions,” he said.

About the fact that Segezha Group sold its assets in Europe, Shamolin informed at the end of March, but then he did not name the details of the transaction, including its cost and the new owner.

Segezha Packaging unites seven factories for the production of paper bags in Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Italy, the Czech Republic, Turkey and Romania. The total capacity of Segezha’s European factories is 769 million paper bags per year. Prior to the introduction of European sanctions, paper for them was supplied from the Russian enterprises of the group. In December 2022, Shamolin explained that the company has always considered assets in Europe as a channel for selling its paper on the European market.

On April 8, 2022, the EU included in the fifth package of sanctions against Russia a ban on the supply of wood, plywood, boards and pellets to their countries. The ban came into full effect on July 10. The eighth EU sanctions package, adopted in October 2022, banned the import of pulp and certain types of paper and cardboard from Russia.