UPM's Board of Directors has approved a plan to spin off its plywood business (UPM Plywood) into a new listed company. The company will be named Wisa Group Oyj. UPM initiated a strategic review of its plywood business last autumn.<\/p>\n
UPM's Board of Directors believes that the separation of the plywood business into a separate listed company will increase shareholder value by creating a company focused solely on plywood manufacturing. The separation will also simplify the governance and decision-making structures, strengthen accountability and enable UPM to focus on its core businesses. On the other hand, the separation will provide the plywood business with an opportunity to attract new investors.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe that this change in our business portfolio will create long-term value for UPM shareholders. The separation of the plywood business into its own growth path strengthens its future prospects and clarifies UPM's business portfolio,\u201d says UPM's President and CEO Massimo Reynaudo .<\/p>\n
\u201cAs an independent company, we are well positioned to execute a focused strategy based on our strong position in the premium market, scalable operations and disciplined growth. Our strong customer partnerships and advanced products provide us with a solid foundation and excellent long-term value creation potential,\u201d says Tuija Suur-Hamari, President of UPM Plywood Business Area.<\/p>\n
UPM's Board of Directors has appointed Suur-Hamari as CEO of Wisa Group. Suur-Hamari joined UPM last year.<\/p>\n
IPO in November<\/strong><\/p>\n The separation of the plywood business from the rest of the company would be implemented as a partial demerger in accordance with the Finnish Companies Act. UPM shareholders will receive one new Wisa Group share as demerger consideration for each UPM share they own. The demerger consideration will be distributed automatically and does not require any action by UPM shareholders to receive it. UPM shareholders will retain their shares in UPM.<\/p>\n The demerger is planned to be completed on the last day of October (31 October 2026). Trading in Wisa Group shares is expected to commence in early November (2 November 2026) or as soon as possible thereafter.<\/p>\n The plan still requires approval from UPM shareholders. An extraordinary general meeting will be held for this purpose no later than the beginning of September.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":98568,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5204],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n