Swedes Sell Paper Business

<BR>Svetogorsk Geteiligungs GmbH, a daughter company of Tetra Laval, has completed a three year investment programme developing OAO Svetogorsk. The company announced the sale of its share packet to American writing paper manufacturer International Paper.<BR>Over the three years of the project, more than $127m was invested in the reconstruction of Russia's largest cellulose and paper factory. Svetogorsk Geteiligungs GmbH, the owner of Svetogorsk, is to sell at least 80% of its 85.3% of shares, leaving just enough shares for a representative to sit on the new board of directors. <BR>Apart from buying the share packet, investment in the factory by its new owners is to exceed $35m, according to DP's sources.<BR>The Americans intend to organise their own cutting and packaging lines for white paper (writing and copier paper) produced using OAO Svetogorsk's paper. At present, the necessary equipment has already been bought, and a separate building has been prepared for the new lines.<BR>Yury Yakovlev, a member of the current OAO Svetogorsk board of directors and chairman of the Leningrad Oblast Property Fund, told DP that, "The investor has completely fulfilled its investment programme and does not owe any money to the government. More than this, the businessmen invested even more in the factory's infrastructure and in developing the factory, etc."