Stora Enso to Separate More Than 1.2 Million Hectares of Swedish Forests Through New Listed Company
Key Facts
Stora Enso plans to put a proposal to separate its Swedish forest assets to shareholders at an extraordinary general meeting on December 15, 2026, ahead of transferring the land and forest-related operations to a new Swedish company, Bergslagets Skogar AB. The proposed assets include more than 1.2 million hectares of forest land in Sweden. The group said the new company would seek listings on the Stockholm and Helsinki stock exchanges. Under the plan, Stora Enso shareholders would receive one new share of the corresponding class for each share they own in the group when the separation is completed, while retaining their Stora Enso shares. The move remains subject to shareholder approval of the separation plan.
The proposed company’s scope extends beyond forest ownership, management and development, and related forestry operations in Sweden. It also includes paint and color pigment production and renewable energy project management, according to Stora Enso’s description of the businesses to be transferred. The company says Bergslagets Skogar will operate independently, while the parent group focuses more heavily on renewable materials and packaging. The board says the separation aims to clarify each company’s focus and improve capital allocation. Stora Enso announced on November 14, 2025, that it intended to separate the forest assets following a strategic review; it valued them at about 5.7 billion euros on September 30, 2025.
Stora Enso does not expect the transaction to have a material impact on the parent company’s reported sales. It said this was because sales from the forest business had historically consisted largely of internal transactions between group companies. By contrast, Stora Enso’s net debt is expected to fall by about 800 million euros when the separation is completed. The new company is expected to have net debt of about 9.1 billion Swedish kronor shortly after completion. The plan would thus transfer the assets and operations to an independent entity, while its expected effect on the group’s reported sales remains limited.
The company has set targets for the new entity that include average annual net growth of 1% in standing timber volume and a long-term annual free cash flow yield of 2%. It also targets a net loan-to-value ratio of between 0% and 20%. It has proposed a policy of distributing between 80% and 100% of adjusted net income as ordinary dividends. The company said the policy aims to deliver stable and growing dividends. Bergslagets Skogar is scheduled to present its standalone strategy, financial profile and long-term value creation framework at its first Capital Markets Day in Stockholm on November 3, 2026.
Stora Enso says its five largest shareholders by voting rights have undertaken, subject to customary conditions, to attend the meeting and vote in favor of the separation. Together, they represent about 28.6% of the shares and 69.9% of the votes, giving their position significant weight in the vote. This comes ahead of the shareholder meeting scheduled for December, which will consider the separation plan and the proposed election of the new company’s board. Shareholder approval remains a condition for completing the transaction. Stora Enso also retains the right not to proceed before completion if the board considers that doing so would be in the interests of the company and its shareholders.
The next milestones include publication of the information memorandum no later than November 24, 2026, followed by the meeting around December 15. The group is targeting registration of the separation’s completion around March 31, 2027. The Swedish tax position remains under review: the Swedish Tax Agency has appealed a preliminary ruling that the allocation of shares would not trigger immediate tax for shareholders who are tax resident in Sweden. The appeal has been referred to the Swedish Supreme Administrative Court, and a final decision is still pending. Shareholder approval and the tax matter therefore remain among the issues ahead of the planned registration of the transaction’s completion.