HELSINKI -- UPM and Tornator PLC have today signed a letter of intent on forestry land sales and long-term wood supply. Tornator will annually sell a significant volume of wood from their forests to UPM mills in Eastern Finland. Additionally, the companies have agreed on forestry land sales covering 23,000 hectares of UPM-owned forest estates in North Karelia to be sold to Tornator. The forests are located in the municipalities of Ilomantsi, Juuka, Lieksa and Polvijärvi and they are both PEFC(TM) and FSC® certified (FSC C 109750). The parties have agreed not to disclose the value of the agreements.

"Our mills in Eastern Finland use all wood assortments and Tornator owns a significant number of FSC certified (FSC C 123368) forests in their vicinity with a versatile range of tree species", says Sauli Brander, SVP, UPM Wood Sourcing and Forestry. "This agreement strengthens the wood supply to UPM mills and increases the FSC certified wood volume in our mills in Eastern Finland."

"Our strategy is to grow as a forest owner and at the same time to be a responsible and competitive partner to our customers and stakeholders. The agreements with UPM support our goals extremely well. They do not affect on Tornator's ownership or business model", explains Sixten Sunabacka, CEO, Tornator PLC.

"The UPM forest estates covered in the agreement are located in Tornator's core area and bring along significant synergy benefits in forestry and improve our service capabilities in wood and lakeshore plot markets. Furthermore, they enhance our capability to supply double-certified wood to our current customers", says Sunabacka.

"This forestry land sales is different than our previous investor agreements as the buyer is an established forest owner in the vicinity of our mills and thus able to flexibly supply wood to UPM", continues Brander.

As part of the real estate portfolio development UPM has for several years regularly sold forest assets located far from its mills.