President of Veracruz Celulose S.A.

The Board of Veracruz Celulose S.A. has decided to appoint Nils Grafström company president. Nils Grafström, STORA's General Counsel since 1980, has been an Executive Vice President of the company since 1992 with responsibility for Legal, Mergers and Acquisitions within Group Management. Veracruz Celulose S.A. is owned equally by STORA, Sweden, and Odebrecht S.A., Brazil. The company's operations focus on the establishment of a pulp mill in the Province of Bahia in Brazil, with an annual capacity of 750,000 tonnes of short-fiber pulp. The mill is scheduled to be ready in 2001-2002. The head office of Veracruz Celulose S.A. is in Eunapolis, in the Province of Bahia. In connection with this appointment, Nils Grafström relinquishes his positions within STORA. New General Counsel at STORA Johan Feldreich has been named as STORA's new General Counsel. Mr. Feldreich has worked for STORA since 1987 and was appointed Deputy General Counsel in 1995. Note to editors: The Veracruz project has been presented earlier, in connection with the agreement signed between Odebrecht and STORA. For further information, please refer to the press release dated September 18, 1997.