Austrian Pulp Mill files to buy Basel
MOSCOW. Dec 11 (Interfax) - Austrian Pulp Mill Holding has filed with the Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) to purchase 36.27% of shares in Arkhangelsk Pulp & Paper Mill .
The FAS has cleared the transaction, the regulator reported.
Pulp Mill currently owns 63.7% of voting shares in Arkhangelsk Pulp & Paper. Oleg Deripaska's Basic Element group owns 33.6% of shares via Continental Management. A representative of Continental Management told Interfax that the company had no information concerning the potential Pulp Mill transaction.
The Arkhangelsk enterprise has a 65% share of the Russian market in label paper and more than 65% of the markets in writing paper, school notebooks and fiber board in Arkhangelsk region. The company is a backbone enterprise in Novodvinsk and the only one there providing water and sewage service. The FAS has therefore ordered Pulp Mill not to re-profile the company, not to permit any reduction in pulp and paper production that is not technologically and economically justified, and not to limit free circulation of product on the Russian market. Pulp Mill must submit a feasibility study to the FAS three months in advance of any decision to reduce production at the plant. In addition, Arkhangelsk Pulp & Paper must notify the FAS of any plans to raise prices more than 10%.