Posted By Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on February 11, 2025
By Elviira Luoma, Agnieszka Olenska
(Reuters) -Finnish forestry group Stora Enso said on Tuesday its fourth quarter operating profit more than doubled from a year earlier, as expected by analysts, driven by price increases and cost saving actions.
Its adjusted operating profit, or earnings before interest and taxes, rose to 121 million euros ($124.7 million) in the final quarter of the year from 51 million euros in the same period in 2023. That was just below analysts' forecast of 122.4 million euros in a Vara Research poll.
Stora Enso's shares were down 4.2% by 0836 GMT, which analysts at J.P.Morgan and Inderes said was due to the lack of a detailed guidance for 2025. Shares of Finnish peer UPM also slid 2% in early trading.
"As a change to prior practices, Stora Enso will continue to provide comments on its outlook but not a specific annual EBIT guidance," the company said in the earnings statement.
Finland is a major producer and exporter of pulp, paper and other products that are based on logging in the country's vast forests.
Last October, Stora Enso put some of its Swedish forest assets up for sale to reduce debt.
It said on Tuesday that the sale process was ongoing, with an aim to sell about 12% of its total forest assets in Sweden of 1.4 million hectares. The fair value of those assets is 6.3 billion euros, it said.
"We are at the stage of the process where we are talking to several potential buyer candidates," CEO Hans Sohlstrom told Reuters, but said he could not comment on the price or the potential buyers at this stage.
($1 = 0.9702 euros)
(Reporting by Agnieszka Olenska and Elviira Luoma in Gdansk, editing by Milla Nissi)