Mike Sutcliffe at Mondi, Merebank, Durban
Mondi, the multinational packaging and paper group, has reached an agreement to sell Mondi Syktyvkar, its last remaining facility in Russia, for 80 billion roubles (about R15.8bn).
The acquisition by Sezar Invest LLC would be paid for in a series of instalments, Mondi said in a statement yesterday. Net proceeds would be distributed to Mondi shareholders “in a timely manner” once all instalments were received, a statement said yesterday.
The Russian Federation’s Federal Anti-Monopoly Service and the Government Sub-Commission for the Control of Foreign Investments had approved the disposal, and there were no further outstanding regulatory conditions.
The 80bn roubles would be paid to Mondi in roubles and in six monthly instalments. The first four monthly payments would be for 13.5bn roubles each, with the first payment made by the end of September.
Once the first four monthly instalments were paid, expected to be by the end of December, ownership of Mondi Syktyvkar would transfer to Sezar and Mondi would have completed its exit from Russia.
Sezar Invest is a subsidiary of Moscow-based real estate development company Sezar Group. Mondi Syktyvkar is a pulp, packaging paper and uncoated fine paper mill located in Syktyvkar. It employs about 4 500 people and supplies uncoated fine paper and containerboard to the domestic Russian market.
For the year to December 2022, Mondi Syktyvkar reported revenue of €1.1bn, and pretax profit of €453m.
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