Metso will resurrect the Valmet name to be the parent company as it splits off its pulp, paper and power businesses from its mining, construction and automation units. Metso’s Board has approved a demerger plan to divide the operations…
Metso will resurrect the Valmet name to be the parent company as it splits off its pulp, paper and power businesses from its mining, construction and automation units. Metso’s Board has approved a demerger plan to divide the operations into two companies: Metso Corporation and Valmet Corporation.
The Board of Directors has concluded that a demerger offers the best potential for its businesses to utilize their respective strengths in their customer industries faster and more efficiently.
Matti Kähkönen, Metso’s president and CEO, says: “As a long-standing Metso employee, I am proud that our Pulp, Paper and Power businesses have developed into a strong globally leading company over the past decade and are now ready to take their next steps as an independent company. The Valmet name reflects the long heritage of these businesses and symbolizes their exceptional engineering achievements.”
The demerger plan would transfer all the assets, debts and liabilities of Metso’s Pulp, Paper and Power businesses to a newly-formed company that will be named Valmet Corporation. Valmet would initially have the same ownership structure as Metso and would be totally independent without any cross-ownership between Metso and Valmet.
The demerger will require the approval of an Extraordinary General Meeting of Metso. If approved, the planned registration date of the completion of the demerger is December 31, 2013 and public trading in new Valmet shares on NASDAQ OMX Helsinki is expected to commence as soon as possible thereafter.
Metso Corp. was created in 1999 as the result of a merger between Valmet and Rauma. According to the history on Metso’s website, Metso Paper was formed by merging Valmet’s paper technology and Sunds Defibrator’s fiber technology operations. Metso’s fiber and paper technology business area was known as Valmet until the name was changed to Metso Paper in 2001.
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