POSITIVE PROFIT DEVIATION

The Rottneros Group’s result for 2003 will be signigicantly better than indicated in earlier forecasts, which was confirmed in the third quarter 2003 report. After a strong fourth quarter 2003 with good shipments the 2003 annual report will show an income after financial items of 115 MSEK. This result includes items of non-recurring nature of approximately 27 MSEK.

The forecast submitted earlier indicated that income after financial items would exceed the 2002 earnings, which amounted to 86 MSEK.

The 2003 year end report will be submitted on February 5 2004.

For further information: CEO Lars Blecko and CFO Anders Byström,

tel. +46 8 5900 1000

Rottneros is one of the world’s leading independent manufacturers of market pulp. The Group consists of the parent company, Rottneros AB, which is listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange, along with its subsidiaries of Rottneros Rockhammar AB, Utansjö Bruk AB and Vallviks Bruk in Sweden as well as Rottneros Miranda, S.A. in Spain, with activities involving production and sales of market pulp, Rockhammar Timber AB, which produces and sells sawn timber, plus the raw materials purchasing company of Rottneros Baltic SIA in Latvia. The Group has a total of 864 employees and a turnover of approximately SEK 2.5 billion.