Jefferson Smurfit Group and Kappa Packaging have announced a proposal to merge their respective operations. The merger is subject to a number of conditions including EU competition approval and consultation with the relevant employee representative organisations.
The merged company would have operations in 23 European and nine Latin American countries, with the capacity to produce 6.1 million tonnes of containerboard and 5.1 million tonnes of corrugated each year.
Through the proposed link-up, Jefferson Smurfit’s leading market position in Latin America and existing market positions in Western and Southern Europe would be combined with Kappa’s strong presence in Northern and Eastern Europe. The combined company would become a world leader in corrugated and a European leader in containerboard, while retaining leading market positions in both paper grades in Latin America.
Under this proposal, Jefferson Smurfit’s existing shareholders would own 58.3% of the combined company while Kappa’s existing stakeholders would command 41.7%.
It is envisaged that the merged entity will be known as the Smurfit Kappa Group.
