RESTRUCTURING PROGRAMME FIRST TASK FOR NEW DIRECTOR AT UTANSJÖ BRUK

- The most prioritised task for new acting managing director Rune Hillström will be to work out and carry through a restructuring programme in order to recover a stable profitability for the future, says group CEO Lars Blecko.

Utansjö Bruk, part of the Rottneros Group, has for some time showed a loss due to among other things the fact that necessary restructuring measurements were not taken on time.

What exactly the restructuring programme will contain is according to Lars Blecko not yet clear.

- Rune Hillström will need fair time to analyse Utansjö Bruk and after that the programme can be determined, something that could be possible towards the middle of December 2002. It is likely that the programme will contain a combination of productivity raising and cost reducing measurements.

Upplands Väsby 2002-10-21

For further information please contact CEO Lars Blecko, 070-641 4910 or 08-5900 1010.

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 878 employees and a turnover of approximately SEK 2.7 billion.