Ashland Inc. has announced that it has hired Luis Fernandez-Moreno to serve as vice president of the company and president of Ashland Water Technologies, the global leader in specialty papermaking chemicals and a commercial unit of Ashland. He reports to John Panichella, Ashland senior vice president and group operating officer.

Fernandez-Moreno, 50, brings nearly 30 years of chemical industry leadership experience to this role. He most recently served as executive vice president of Arch Chemicals, Inc., where he was responsible for the wood protection and HTH water products businesses, with combined annual sales of approximately $900 million. Arch was acquired by Lonza Group Ltd., a leading supplier to the life sciences industry, in October 2011. Prior to that, Fernandez-Moreno served as business group vice president, Dow Coating Materials, a $3 billion unit that was formed after Dow Chemical Co. (NYSE: DOW) acquired Rohm & Haas Co. in 2009. He previously spent more than 25 years with Rohm & Haas in a series of leadership roles spanning across Europe, Latin America and the United States. The businesses he directed ranged from paint and coating materials to plastic additives and printing technologies.

"Luis is a talented leader with significant experience in driving profitable growth and execution across global business lines," said Panichella. "Throughout his career, Luis has proved adept at forging close relationships with customers, establishing clear strategic goals and holding his teams accountable for performance. We are pleased to have someone with his experience in the specialty chemical industry assume the leadership of Water Technologies and we are confident in his ability to position the business for future sales and earnings growth."       

Fernandez-Moreno earned a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering from Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City. He also completed the Wharton Management Program at The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Relevant competition authorities have approved the combination between Billerud and Korsnäs. All conditions for the combination are consequently fulfilled. Accordingly, completion of the combination is planned to take place on 29 November 2012.

As previously announced, Billerud AB (publ) has on 19 June 2012 entered into an agreement with Investment AB Kinnevik to combine Billerud and Korsnäs AB. The combination was conditional upon, among other conditions, the approval from Billerud's shareholders and approval from relevant competition authorities.

The condition regarding approval from the shareholders was fulfilled at the extraordinary general meeting that was held on 14 September 2012. In addition, all relevant competition authorities have now approved the combination. Accordingly, the conditions for the combination are fulfilled.

"As a result of the combination with Korsnäs, we will become a leading player in the packaging paper business with a strengthened offer and a strong platform for future growth. The new company BillerudKorsnäs will be able to offer customers a better and wider range of products and solution. We will now, with full force, work with the integration and create a world leading company ", says Per Lindberg, President and CEO of Billerud.

The European Commission's decision to approve the combination is conditional upon the divestment of a paper machine located at the production facility in Gävle (PM 2). The sales of white kraft and sack paper products manufactured at PM 2 amounted to approximately 2 percent of the new Group's total combined sales volume for the year 2011. Furthermore, BillerudKorsnäs will for a period of time offer to deliver certain supply inputs such as pulp, steam and electricity to the paper machine.

"The condition for the European Commission's decision concerns a limited part of the new group's business operations and does not have a significant impact on the business logic or the expected synergies of the combination" says Per Lindberg, President and CEO of Billerud.

Completion of the combination is planned to take place on 29 November 2012 and the Board will, in immediate connection with it, making use of the authorisation granted to the Board from the extraordinary general meeting, resolve on, and announce the terms of, a new issue of shares with preferential rights for the shareholders. Further information on the new issue of shares will be available in the prospectus which will be published in connection with the Board's resolution.

Ahlstrom, a global high performance fiber-based materials company, updates its 2012 outlook for net sales and operating profit excluding non-recurring items after the Extraordinary General Meeting of the company approved the demerger of the Label and Processing  business area.  

Ahlstrom's Extraordinary General Meeting of the Shareholders today resolved to approve the demergers of the Label and Processing business in Europe and the Coated Specialties business in Brazil according to the respective demerger plans. Consequently, the Label and Processing business area will be classified as an asset held for distribution to owners and reported separately as discontinued operations in the Financial Statements Bulletin 2012.

Ahlstrom's view of the market environment remains unchanged. However, the outlook is only adjusted to reflect the resolution by the EGM to approve the demerger of the Label and Processing business area.

Ahlstrom now expects net sales from continuing operations to be EUR 960 -1,040 million and operating profit excluding non-recurring items from continuing operations to be EUR 22 - 32 million in 2012. Ahlstrom had previously estimated, including the Label and Processing business area, net sales to be EUR 1,550 - 1,630 million and operating profit excluding non-recurring items to be EUR 48 - 58 million.

The cost structure of the continuing operations has been adjusted with the costs historically allocated to the discontinued businesses to the extent such costs will remain with Ahlstrom after the demergers.

Earlier this month, Ahlstrom announced that the company intends to rightsize its cost base to reflect the future size and scope of the company following the closing of the Label and Processing transaction. The company aims to achieve a total of EUR 15 million in cost savings within one year after the closing of the transaction. 

Ahlstrom Corporation's Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders (EGM) was held today on November 27, 2012.

Demerger of the Label and Processing business in Europe

The EGM resolved to approve the demerger concerning the Ahlstrom Group's Label and Processing business in Europe ('LP Europe Demerger') in accordance with the demerger plan.

Upon the execution of the demerger concerning the Label and Processing business in Europe, the shareholders of Ahlstrom Corporation will receive as demerger consideration 0.25 new shares in Munksjö Oyj for each share owned in Ahlstrom Corporation (i.e. the exchange ratio is 4:1). In case the number of shares received by a shareholder of the company as demerger consideration would be a fractional number, the fractions will be rounded down to the nearest whole number. No demerger consideration will be paid on the basis of own shares held by Ahlstrom Corporation.

The completion of the demerger is subject to, among other things, approvals of the competition authorities.

Demerger of the Label and Processing business in Brazil

The EGM resolved to approve the demerger concerning the Ahlstrom Group's Label and Processing business in Brazil ('Coated Specialties Demerger') in accordance with the demerger plan.

Upon execution of the demerger concerning the Label and Processing business in Brazil, the shareholders of Ahlstrom Corporation will receive as demerger consideration 0.265 new shares in Munksjö Oyj for each share owned in Ahlstrom Corporation. In case the number of shares received by a shareholder of the company as demerger consideration would be a fractional number, the fractions will be rounded down to the nearest whole number. No demerger consideration will be paid on the basis of own shares held by Ahlstrom Corporation.

The completion of the demerger is subject to, among other things, certain regulatory approvals in Brazil, including the approval of the Brazilian competition authority (CADE). 

The greenfield pulp mill of Zhanjiang Chenming Pulp & Paper Co., Ltd reached its nominal production capacity of 700,000 t/a in world record time – only 121 days from start-up. It has also produced 100% of design capacity during the first full operating year, establishing another world record. All key production technologies and start-up supervision were provided by international technology Group ANDRITZ. Zhanjiang Chenming Pulp & Paper is a subsidiary of Shandong Chenming Paper, one of the largest pulp and paper producers in China.

In 2009, ANDRITZ PULP & PAPER was awarded the contract to deliver all process technologies for the bleached hardwood kraft pulp mill located in GuangdongProvince. The mill was started up in September 2011 and reached its nominal average production capacity only four months later (measured as a 30-day moving average). This represents a new “world record” based upon officially available figures of greenfield pulp mills, eclipsing the record set by another ANDRITZ customer in South America. This extremely fast start-up has an important economic element in that it greatly enhances a mill’s return on investment.

ANDRITZ’s scope of supply included the wood handling system, the fiberline (cooking, washing, screening, bleaching, pulp dryer, and bale finishing), and the recovery island (evaporation, recovery boiler, and white liquor plant). In addition, ANDRITZ was entrusted with the delivery of the stock preparation systems for the mill’s new paper machines.

On 7 November 2012 Arctic Paper S.A. announced its public offer to buy all of the shares in Rottneros AB. On the same day the Board of Directors of Rottneros recommended that the shareholders should accept the offer, subject to the conditions specified.

The Board of Directors of Rottneros has now been informed in writing by shareholders (including Skagen Vekst and Peter Gyllenhammar via companies, who taken together control more than 10 per cent of the capital and voting power in Rottneros), that these owners will not accept the bid announced by Arctic Paper.

In light of the above-mentioned new information - which means that Arctic Paper’s offer will not be accepted to such an extent that Arctic Paper would obtain over 90 percent and thereby be able to request the compulsory redemption of outstanding shares and consequently that a merger cannot be implemented - the Board of Directors of Rottneros makes the following comments.

The primary reason for the position adopted by the Board of Directors as referred to above is that a merger of the two companies may be expected to generate synergies of approximately SEK 80 million and also that, from the perspective of both results and cash flow, a merger would balance out the two companies' very strong dependency on fluctuations in pulp prices. A precondition for realising a substantial proportion of these synergies is that the companies are completely amalgamated and that one head office and one management group be phased out. In addition, synergies have been identified on the financial side, though this also presupposes that the companies join together. The other significant synergy comprises the optimisation of transport costs, which would probably be considerably more difficult to achieve if the companies continue to operate as autonomous businesses.

The Board of Directors’ recommendation remains unchanged, that is to say that the companies merge to enable these synergies to be realised. The fact that two major owners controlling more than 10 per cent of the capital and voting power have given notice that they will not accept the bid means in that event that a merger cannot be effected and that it would thus not be possible to secure most of these synergies.