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Russian timber holding Segezha Group sells European assets

Mikhail Shamolin also said that Segezha Group's Board of Directors has yet to decide on dividend amounts for 2022

MOSCOW, March 31. /TASS/. One of Russia's biggest timber holdings Segezha Group sold its assets in Europe because it could not support their activities. The company will disclose the financial side of the transaction and information about who the assets were sold to later, the company's CEO Mikhail Shamolin told reporters.

"This transaction was completed, they were sold. They were sold simply because their activities could not be supported," Shamolin said.

According to him, due to sanctions restrictions, it became impossible to supply European enterprises with paper. "On the other hand, they could not buy paper on the European market, because paper manufacturers refused to supply it to them. And customers refused to buy products due to the fact that the owner of European assets is a Russian company," he explained.

Shamolin also added that additional information about the deal will be disclosed at a later date, adding that the deal was carried out at the market price.

The company owned the enterprises through its European subsidiary that united seven factories for making paper packaging in Germany, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania, Turkey, and the Czech Republic. The enterprises became part of the company in 2014.

Shamolin also said that Segezha Group's Board of Directors has yet to decide on dividend amounts for 2022. He noted that the decision will be made by the Board of Directors, which will meet around April-May.

The company reported earlier on Friday its net profit under IFRS in 2022 decreased by 60% and amounted to 6.1 bln rubles ($79.06 mln). The company's revenue for the reporting period increased by 15% to 106.8 bln rubles ($1.38 bln), "driven mostly by the consolidation of the assets of NLHK and Inter Forest Rus (IFR), which became part of the Group in Q3 and Q4 2021, respectively." At the same time, the company's net debt as of December 31, 2022, amounted to 101 bln rubles ($1.3 bln).