Dissolving the share ownership system of Metsä Group's management team

Metsä Group Stock Exchange Release 26 February 2014 at 2.00 pm EET


Metsä Group's parent company Metsäliitto Cooperative announced on 10 August 2010, that its Board of Directors had resolved to fund Metsä Group Executive Management Team members’ holding company for purposes of encouraging the Executive Management Team members to purchase and own Metsä Board Corporation’s shares, thus increasing the long-term owner value of Metsä Group and promoting the Group's strategic goals. For the share ownership, the Metsä Group Executive Management Team members at the time acquired a company called Metsäliitto Management Oy. Metsäliitto Management Oy acquired 6,790,887 Metsä Board B shares. The share acquisitions were funded through the Executive Management Team members' joint capital input, totalling about EUR 3,850,000, and through an interest-bearing loan of EUR 15,400,000 from Metsäliitto Cooperative.

As the volume weighted average price of Metsä Board's B share during the 20 trading days following the announcement of Metsä Board's interim report for the third quarter 2013 exceeded the average price of Metsä Board shares acquired for the arrangement, the share ownership system was dissolved based on its terms and conditions in February 2014 through share transactions, resulting in Metsäliitto Cooperative owning all shares in Metsäliitto Management Oy.

The members of Metsä Group’s Executive Management Team are included in the Group’s share-based incentive plan that will be in force until 2018 as announced in a stock exchange release on 7 February 2014.


METSÄLIITTO COOPERATIVE

For further information, please contact:
Martti Asunta, Chairman of the Board of Directors, tel. +358 40 829 9393