Showing posts with label Norske Skog. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Norske Skog. Show all posts
Wednesday, 6 June 2012
Norske Skogindustrier jumps on an insider buy
Norske Skog (OSE: NSG) pulled pulp & paper industry into healthy gains on Tuesday on the news of a big insider purchase. President & CEO Sven Ombudstvedt bought 700 000 shares, corresponding to over 0.36% of all the shares at a price of 3.42 Norwegian kroner through his investment company Elle Holding AS. This takes his holding up to nearly one per cent of all the shares. The stock climbed steadily throughout the day to finish up by 13% at 3.92 NOK.
Monday, 26 March 2012
Norske Skog sells Follum and Bio Bio
In December Norske Skog (OSE: NSG) said that the Board of Directors and corporate assembly had agreed that the historic Follum mill would be closed no later than on the 31st of March, removing some excess newsprint capacity. Forest owners association Viken Skog has been trying to purchase the operations, and had a 280 million NOK offer rebuffed since it has been important for Norske Skog that it does not become a direct competitor.
Today Norske Skog said an agreement has been made with the association so that Viken Skog is acquiring Follum to create new activities on the site. Net sales proceeds are around 60 million NOK with an accounting gain of around 30 million. Norske Skog Follum AS, Follum Industripark AS, and the properties at the site are comprise the deal.
Norske Skog will disassemble and retain parts of the technical production equipment and discontinue production on Friday. Authorities have been taking part in the discussions and it is likely funds will be directed towards research into new forest based products.
The company has also agreed to divest Norske Skog Bio Bio in Chile to a consortium of local investors for 56 million USD. The buyer intends to continue newsprint production at the mill. It has a capacity of 125 000 tons of newsprint, The divestments is in line with the company strategy to improve cash flow and financial position.
Today Norske Skog said an agreement has been made with the association so that Viken Skog is acquiring Follum to create new activities on the site. Net sales proceeds are around 60 million NOK with an accounting gain of around 30 million. Norske Skog Follum AS, Follum Industripark AS, and the properties at the site are comprise the deal.
Norske Skog will disassemble and retain parts of the technical production equipment and discontinue production on Friday. Authorities have been taking part in the discussions and it is likely funds will be directed towards research into new forest based products.
The company has also agreed to divest Norske Skog Bio Bio in Chile to a consortium of local investors for 56 million USD. The buyer intends to continue newsprint production at the mill. It has a capacity of 125 000 tons of newsprint, The divestments is in line with the company strategy to improve cash flow and financial position.
Friday, 9 December 2011
Warnings and closures continue @ Nordic Pulp & Paper sector
Pulp & paper companies were under pressure after M-Real (OMXH: MRLBV) issued a profit warning, in which the company said that fourth quarter result will be clearly weaker than the previous quarter. The earlier guidance assumed that Q4 results would be on par with Q3 results. The company will start statutory negotiations for working time arrangements and possible layoffs affecting up to 1200 workers. M-Real’s stock retreated 11%. Moodys joined the party shortly after that and revised outlook for global paper and forest products to negative. The rating agency says that declining demand leading to weakened pricing will not be fully offset by cost cutting measures of the companies and declining input prices.
Norske Skog’s (OSE: NSG) stock price held up better today as its corporate assembly agreed with the board of directors that the historic Norske Skog Follum mill shall be closed, removing some of the redundant newsprint capacity. The mill has two remaining machines, PM1 and PM7, after the closure of PM2 in 2008. The capacity of the two machines is 290 000 tonnes. The mill has long been considered as uncompetitive in the future market environment.
The tensions got high after the announcement amongst the workers union and the 356 employees, as forest owners association Viken Skog had an outstanding offer for the purchase of Follum rejected by Norske Skog . The initial offer was in fact completely unreasonable, given that even the resalable energy contracts from Follum are worth more than that. The appreciation of the Norwegian Krone has made the situation even more dire for companies producing in there. Norske Skog’s stock price has been up since the third quarter results raised hopes that the company will be able to weather the storm out.
After market close Swedish company Holmen (OMX: HOLM B) noted that it has finished a forest revaluation process, which will positively impact operating prodit by 3.6 billion SEK and profit after tax by 2.6 billion SEK on Q4. Press conference is scheduled for tomorrow December 9th at 10.00 CET.
Norske Skog’s (OSE: NSG) stock price held up better today as its corporate assembly agreed with the board of directors that the historic Norske Skog Follum mill shall be closed, removing some of the redundant newsprint capacity. The mill has two remaining machines, PM1 and PM7, after the closure of PM2 in 2008. The capacity of the two machines is 290 000 tonnes. The mill has long been considered as uncompetitive in the future market environment.
The tensions got high after the announcement amongst the workers union and the 356 employees, as forest owners association Viken Skog had an outstanding offer for the purchase of Follum rejected by Norske Skog . The initial offer was in fact completely unreasonable, given that even the resalable energy contracts from Follum are worth more than that. The appreciation of the Norwegian Krone has made the situation even more dire for companies producing in there. Norske Skog’s stock price has been up since the third quarter results raised hopes that the company will be able to weather the storm out.
After market close Swedish company Holmen (OMX: HOLM B) noted that it has finished a forest revaluation process, which will positively impact operating prodit by 3.6 billion SEK and profit after tax by 2.6 billion SEK on Q4. Press conference is scheduled for tomorrow December 9th at 10.00 CET.
Thursday, 4 August 2011
Norske Skog logged
Much of the Nordic pulp & paper industry stocks are already trading at near recession levels. For Norske Skog (OSE: NSG) there are also added company specific concerns. Given the current market situation, and that Norske Skog missed expectations, a sell-off was the inevitable results. The stock closed down over 30% and at lowest level for the session. The stock is down some 75% in half a year.
Second quarter revenue was 4.5 billion NOK and EBITDA 248 million. Result after taxes was minus 280 million. Cash flow from operations was still negative. Higher costs and currency effects weighed in negatively, the company has not been able to cut costs as well as peers. The company has made some divestments and aims to do more of those to continue to try to improve debt situation. Norske Skog says it now has sufficient financing to cover maturities in 2011 and 2012, with next big maturities coming from 2017 onwards.
Norske Skog expects newsprint prices to increase somewhat in H2. Input costs are expected to remain high but energy prices should moderate. Gross operating earnings are expected to improve from 2010 but to still be ’unsatisfactory’ Norske Skog plans to be active in seeking industry consolidation.
Second quarter revenue was 4.5 billion NOK and EBITDA 248 million. Result after taxes was minus 280 million. Cash flow from operations was still negative. Higher costs and currency effects weighed in negatively, the company has not been able to cut costs as well as peers. The company has made some divestments and aims to do more of those to continue to try to improve debt situation. Norske Skog says it now has sufficient financing to cover maturities in 2011 and 2012, with next big maturities coming from 2017 onwards.
Norske Skog expects newsprint prices to increase somewhat in H2. Input costs are expected to remain high but energy prices should moderate. Gross operating earnings are expected to improve from 2010 but to still be ’unsatisfactory’ Norske Skog plans to be active in seeking industry consolidation.
Wednesday, 13 July 2011
UPM's Myllykoski and Rhein Papier deal approved
EU commission unconditionally approves UPM Kymmene's (OMX: UPM1V) Myllykoski and Rhein Papier GmbH deal discussed in detail in 21.12.2010 blog item. Competitors Stora Enso (OMX: STERV) Holmen (OMX: HOLM B) Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget (SCA) (OMX: SCA B), M-Real (OMXH: MRLAV, OMXH: MRLBV) and Norske Skog (OSE: NSG) are also up strongly on the news.
EU commission conducted an in-depth investigation and concluded that the combined entity will face enough competition so as to that consumers are not hurt. Competitors also have significant spare capacity left. Nevertheless some of the excess capacity in the field may now be cut by UPM. Analysts had been suggesting to buy European pulp & paper sector companies ahead of the approval as it was speculated that a ruling would be positive.
Combined Myllykoski and Rhein Papier have even paper mills with annual capacity of around 2.8 million tonnes. Myllykoski is a family business with long traditions. The owners have been rueing post initial announcement that situation had to come to this and now the most likely cuts should be from its assets. Rhein Papier has a couple of prime assets. UPM has now cleared all regulatory hurdles and expects final closing of the 900 million Euro per enterprise value deal within a month. UPM Kymmene's release is available here.
EU commission conducted an in-depth investigation and concluded that the combined entity will face enough competition so as to that consumers are not hurt. Competitors also have significant spare capacity left. Nevertheless some of the excess capacity in the field may now be cut by UPM. Analysts had been suggesting to buy European pulp & paper sector companies ahead of the approval as it was speculated that a ruling would be positive.
Combined Myllykoski and Rhein Papier have even paper mills with annual capacity of around 2.8 million tonnes. Myllykoski is a family business with long traditions. The owners have been rueing post initial announcement that situation had to come to this and now the most likely cuts should be from its assets. Rhein Papier has a couple of prime assets. UPM has now cleared all regulatory hurdles and expects final closing of the 900 million Euro per enterprise value deal within a month. UPM Kymmene's release is available here.
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