Double A acquires Alizay mill assets

Metsä Board has sold its Alizay fine paper mill to the French department of Eure that resold parts of it to paper manufacturer Double A. The Thai company intends to restart paper production in four months.

Thai paper manufacturer Double A has taken over paper operations of Metsä Board's fine paper mill in Alizay, France for an amount of €18m. The French department of Eure communicated it acquired the mill in its entirety for €22.2m and simultaneously resold the properties and assets needed to restart paper activities to Double A. The remaining parcels and properties are to be managed by EPFN (Etablissement Public Foncier de Normandie) which plans to create a river port, amongst other things. The transactions were signed yesterday.

A spokesman for the CGT union told EUWID that Double A had announced plans to restart paper operations in Alizay in four months. The manufacturer is said to continue production of office paper with an unchanged capacity of 300,000 tpy.

The department of Eure had announced its intention to buy the Alizay mill in mid-December 2012. It explained that it acted as a mediator between Metsä Board and Doubla A since the parties had not been able to find an agreement. The takeover was to guarantee the reindustrialisation and exploit the economic potentials of the site, the department said, adding that 200 jobs would be created.

Metsä Board had permanently shut down paper production at Alizay in early 2012. Together with local authorities, the company had undertaken a voluntary reindustrialisation project to create jobs and draw new businesses to the site.

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