Stora Enso to buy 51% of Chinese packaging company

Oct 27, 2010. /Lesprom Network/. Stora Enso has signed an agreement to acquire 51% of the Chinese packaging company Inpac International. Inpac is a packaging company with production operations in China and India, and service operations in Korea. Inpac specialises in manufacturing consumer packaging, especially for global manufacturers of mobile phones and other consumer goods. The enterprise value of the company is Euro 82 million, Stora Enso said in a statement received by Lesprom Network. "This joint venture is an important step on the path to our future offering strong synergies with our existing Stora Enso consumer packaging businesses in Europe. This step supports our effort to become a market and consumer need driven renewable materials company - with access to the two fastest-growing consumer packaging markets globally," says Stora Enso CEO Jouko Karvinen. "We are very pleased to be joining forces with Stora Enso. By combining our skills and knowledge through this partnership, we can continue to develop this packaging company further and serve global brand owners with innovative packaging solutions," says Inpac Chairman Guo Cai. Inpac's main production plants are at Qian'an in northern China, Dongguan in southern China and Chennai in India. The company has approximately 3 100employees. Stora Enso's annual operating profit is expected to be enhanced by Euro 11million. The all-cash acquisition is expected to be closed within six months, subject to approval by regulatory and competition authorities, and other customary closing conditions. Stora Enso is a global paper, packaging and wood products company producing newsprint and book paper, magazine paper, fine paper, consumer board, industrial packaging and wood products.