|
International Paper Co on Thursday said it plans to divide itself into two independent, publicly traded companies for North America and Europe, Middle East & Africa, a year after acquiring London-listed packaging company DS Smith PLC. The company also released its 2025 earnings, swinging to a net loss for the year due to the transaction and integration costs of that acquisition. International Paper, which currently is listed in both New York and London, said both the North America business, which will be called International Paper, and the ’EMEA Packaging’ business, for which it didn’t provide a name, will include legacy International Paper and DS Smith assets. International Paper bought DS Smith at an enterprise value of £7.8 billion. International Paper shares were down 1.1% at 3,030.00 pence in London on Thursday afternoon. They were up 1.1% to $41.96 in the New York pre-market. Also in New York, the shares are down 28% over the past 12 months. The company has a market capitalisation of about $21.9 billion. International Paper said the separation is expected to be structured as a spin-off of the combined EMEA Packaging business to shareholders, with International Paper retaining a ‘meaningful ownership stake’ in the new company. This is expected to be completed within 12 to 15 months. The EMEA Packaging company will be listed on both the London Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange. International Paper didn’t say which of these would be its primary listing. International Paper will continue to be led by Andy Silvernail as chair & chief executive officer. EMEA Packaging will be led by Tim Nicholls as CEO and David Robbie as chair. Nichols currently is executive vice president of International Paper and president of DS Smith. International Paper said the separation will create ‘two leading sustainable packaging solutions companies, each with focused management teams and business models, tailored investment and capital allocation strategies, and compelling financial profiles’. Separately, International Paper reported a net loss of $3.52 billion in 2025, swung from $557 million net profit in 2024. Net sales rose 49% to $23.63 billion from $15.84 billion, due to the inclusion of DS Smith, but costs, including transaction and integration costs for DS Smith, also rose. International Paper also took a $2.5 billion non-cash impairment of goodwill for its Packaging Solutions EMEA business. The impairment was taken against fourth-quarter accounts, so in the fourth quarter alone, the company’s net loss widened to $2.38 billion from $147 million a year before. Sales rose 53% to $6.01 billion from $3.92 billion. Looking ahead, International Paper guided adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation from continuing operations of $740 million to $760 million in the first quarter of 2026 and $3.5 billion to $3.7 billion in the full year. Adjusted Ebitda was $758 million in the fourth quarter of 2025, up from $443 million a year before, and $2.98 billion in all of 2025, up from $1.64 billion in 2024. ‘We have confidence in the plans to achieve our targets for 2026 and believe our ongoing transformation investments will allow us to build momentum as we work toward forming two scaled, independent, regional packaging solutions leaders in North America and EMEA,’ CEO Silvernail said. Copyright 2026 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
|
