Stora Enso takes step in restructuring its finance function
STORA ENSO OYJ STOCK EXCHANGE RELEASE 5 November 2008 at 07.00 GMT
Stora Enso has signed an agreement to outsource most of its financial transaction processing to Capgemini, one of the world's foremost providers of consulting, technology and outsourcing services. This is a step in the restructuring of the Group's finance function that was announced on 25 October 2007 together with Stora Enso's other restructuring plans in response to increasing costs and to safeguard long-term profitability. Stora Enso's restructuring of its financial administration will be one of the most comprehensive restructurings of financial administration in the Nordic countries. It will significantly reduce the costs of the finance function and improve the quality of financial operations. “Our outsourcing agreement with Capgemini, together with other plans for the finance function, will improve productivity and reduce costs. These steps are in line with our plans to streamline our administration to suit our more focussed business needs,” says Stora Enso CFO Markus Rauramo. Under the outsourcing agreement, Capgemini will handle most of Stora Enso's transaction processing such as vendor invoice handling. The financial services will be provided to Stora Enso by Capgemini Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) team located mainly in India and Poland. The outsourcing is planned to start from the beginning of 2009 and be completed in the fourth quarter of 2009. The outsourcing is expected to decrease the number of Stora Enso employees by about 300. The outsourcing agreement is conditional upon Stora Enso's completion of the applicable requirement to inform and/or consult with its respective employees or their representatives, as the case may be, in respect of the outsourcing arrangement. In addition to outsourcing operations to Capgemini, Stora Enso will establish one centralised shared service centre at Kotka in Finland and retain only small finance functions in the main countries in place of the current shared service centres in Finland, Sweden and Germany. For further information, please contact: Markus Rauramo, CFO, tel. +358 2046 21121 Kari Vainio, EVP, Corporate Communications, tel. +44 7799 348 197 Keith B. Russell, SVP, Investor Relations, tel. +44 7775 788659 Ulla Paajanen-Sainio, Vice President, Investor Relations and Financial Communications, tel. +358 40 763 8767 www.storaenso.com www.storaenso.com/investors STORA ENSO OYJ Jari Suvanto Ulla Paajanen-Sainio