Mets-Serla is negotiating exclusively with International Paper to acquire its 72% majority shareholding of Zanders Feinpapiere.


The debt-free deal is expected to be finalised by 8 September.

Veli-Matti Mynttinen, executive vice-president and chief financial officer at Mets-Serla, refused to speculate on the value and exact nature of the deal until the company had considered what to with the minority 28% shareholders in Frankfurt.


Mets-Serla is already the largest fine paper producer in Europe since its buyout of Modo Paper in June (PrintWeek, 2 June). The Zanders deal will increase its European market share from 23% to 27% and its total paper capacity from 4.7bn tonnes to over 5bn tonnes.


Zanders, a German company founded in 1829, has more than 2,700 employees and two production facilities, in Bergisch Gladbach and in Dren near Cologne. Last year the company achieved 315m in sales and boasted an aggregate production facility of some 450,000 tonnes.


According to Mynttinen, the company was an ideal target for Mets-Serla to strengthen its position in Europe. We wanted to improve our overall quality of coated fine quality papers and Zanders is well-known for its excellent paper marks such as Chromolux, Ikono and Mega, he said.


However, with a net profit of only 5.5m for the first half of 2000, which is expected to fall under the impact of rising costs of raw materials and energy, Zanders had been looking at the possibility of investments and strategic alliances to increase shareholder value.


Story by Eloise Seddon