Skanska sells its forest operations to The Gustaf Douglas family and companies
Skanska and Förvaltnings AB Wasatornet and other companies have today, signed a letter of intent regarding the sale of Skanska's entire forest assets, including the related operations conducted by the subsidiaries Boxholms Skogar, Gusum Skogar, Bark & Warburgs and Örmo Skogar.
Skanska sells its forest operations to The Gustaf Douglas family and companies
Skanska and Förvaltnings AB Wasatornet and other companies have today, signed a letter of intent regarding the sale of Skanska's entire forest assets, including the related operations conducted by the subsidiaries Boxholms Skogar, Gusum Skogar, Bark & Warburgs and Örmo Skogar.
The preliminarily agreed sales price totals approximately SEK 1.4 billion and will generate a pretax capital gain of approximately SEK 1.1 billion for the Skanska Group. Following the customary due diligence process, the final sales agreements are expected to be signed at the end of June 1998.
The forest assets, which are well concentrated geographically in the provinces of Östergötland and Småland, comprise a total area of approximately 48,000 hectares, of which productive forest land accounts for about 43,000 hectares. The assets were acquired by Skanska during the first half of the 1980s.
"The sale is part of Skanska's strategy to concentrate its resources on the Group's core business of construction-related services, and development of real estate and projects", says Skanska's CEO, Claes Björk, in his comment to the deal.
"Our acquisition of Skanska's forest assets and related operations is intended to balance the family's shareholding interests in Securitas, Assa Abloy, Fagerhult and Latour", says Gustaf Douglas in his comment. " Boxholm offered a unique opportunity to enter into a very good ownership tradition. We have experience of similar management traditions through our estates. The investment will be financed mainly from the sale of 1.950,00 Securitas B shares, which has already been completed."
Danderyd, June 5, 1998
SKANSKA AB Förvaltnings AB Wasatornet
Group Corporate Communications
For further information, contact: Anders Nyrén, CFO Finance Skanska AB, Tel +46 8 753 8632
Cecilia Schön, SVP Communications Skanska AB, Tel +46 8 753 87 99.
Gustaf Douglas Tel +46 8 679 56 00