Stora Enso?s profitability improvement programmes ahead of schedule

STORA ENSO OYJ Stock Exchange Release 21 December 2005 at 14.00

Stora Enso’s profitability improvement programmes ahead of 
schedule

Stora Enso’s profitability improvement programmes are progressing 
faster than anticipated. The Profit 2007 programme, with pre-tax 
profit improvement of EUR 300 million net, will have approximately 
EUR 50 million of provisions recorded in the fourth quarter 2005, 
mainly for redundancy costs. As previously announced, provisions 
of approximately EUR 310 million related to asset closures under 
the Asset Performance Review (APR) will also be recorded in the 
fourth quarter of 2005. 

In addition, approximately EUR 30 million mainly due to 
redundancies at the four mills under scrutiny will be recorded as 
a non-recurring item in the last quarter of 2005. There will also 
be approximately EUR 40 million of asset write-downs due to 
additional restructuring during the fourth quarter of 2005, mainly 
in the Wood Products segment.

In summary, the fourth quarter 2005 non-recurring items will total 
approximately EUR 430 million. These provisions will have a cash 
impact of approximately EUR 160 million that will be incurred as 
the payments become due, mainly during 2006. However, there will 
be no cash impact in the fourth quarter of 2005. 

The Company still expects operating profit excluding non-recurring 
items to be higher in the fourth quarter than the third quarter of 
2005. Uncertainty in the timing of deliveries from Finnish mills 
over the year-end holiday period may result in some revenue being 
credited to the year 2006, instead of 2005. The ten-day strike at 
Langerbrugge Mill, Belgium in November will have a negative impact 
on the fourth quarter results. 

These figures are unaudited. 

For further information, please contact:
Hannu Ryöppönen, CFO, tel. +44 20 7016 3114
Kari Vainio, Executive Vice President, Corporate Communications, 
tel. +44 7799 348 197
Keith B Russell, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations, tel. 
+44 7775 788 659
Ulla Paajanen-Sainio, Vice President, Investor Relations and 
Financial Communications,  tel. +358 2046 21242

www.storaenso.com

STORA ENSO OYJ


p.p.	Jussi Siitonen	Jukka Marttila