Verso Receives All Regulatory Approvals Necessary to Proceed with Closing of Merger with BillerudKorsnäs AB

Mark Ushpol has been appointed Executive Vice President of the Food Packaging & Technical Solutions business area and a member of the Group Executive Management team as of January 1, 2022. Mark has more than twenty years of experience in the paper and packaging industry and was most recently managing director for DS Smith North America Packaging. Prior to this, he held several management positions at companies such as Mondi and Domtar in the US., Europe and South Africa, as well as served as association representative in several industry organizations. “I am truly inspired by the work Ahlstrom-Munksjö does in the area of specialty papers and packaging, and I am very much looking forward to working with this talented team to bring sustainable fiber-based solutions to the world,” commented Mark Ushpol. Robyn Buss, currently Executive Vice President of the Food Packaging & Technical Solutions business area and member of the Group Executive Management Team, has announced her retirement effective at the end of 2021. Robyn Buss has spent more than 30 years in the specialty paper industry and has served several Wisconsin-based paper plants during her career. Robyn Buss joined Ahlstrom-Munksjö with the acquisition of Expera Specialty Solutions at the end of 2018.

Brazilian pulp and paper producer Suzano shut operations throughout Brazil over the weekend in response to an ongoing strike by truck drivers over diesel fuel prices, a company spokesman said Tuesday. Rafael Mastrocola, head of investor relations for Suzano, told S&P Global Platts the company already had reduced output, since Friday took it further and "as of now we have halted pretty much all of our sites." Click Read More below for additional information.

Management Summary from Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jean-Michel Ribiéras: In the first quarter, we completed a heavy planned maintenance outage schedule in Europe and North America. The second quarter will be our heaviest outage quarter of the year, and by mid-year, we will have spent over 80% of the total annual planned maintenance outage costs. We returned nearly $40 million in cash to shareowners in the first quarter. We distributed $18 million via the first quarter dividend and repurchased $20 million in shares. We will continue evaluating opportunities to repurchase shares at attractive prices with $62 million remaining on our $150 million share repurchase authorization from September 2023. Our board of directors also declared a second quarter dividend of $0.45 per share, which we paid April 29. We understand one of the main risks in today’s environment is a global economic slowdown due to the current tariff situation, which could impact uncoated freesheet demand. Some shifts in uncoated freesheet and pulp trade flows are already starting to materialize. We also anticipate higher risks of inflation on our raw materials, transportation and capital spending. While these present possible challenges, these risks appear manageable because we are primarily sourcing and shipping locally, and have a very strong balance sheet. Over 90% of our raw materials are sourced locally, with very little coming from China. In Europe and North America, more than 90% of our shipments stay within their respective region. In Latin America, 80% of our shipments remain in the region. Although we export about 20% of our products from Latin America, we are well positioned as our Brazilian mills are some of the world's most competitive and low-cost uncoated freesheet facilities.