Brazil’s largest pulp producers Fibria and Suzano to merge
Brazil’s two largest pulp producers, Fibria and Suzano, are to merge to create the world’s largest producer of the raw material for paper production.
Suzano beat fierce competition from Paper Excellence, controlled by Indonesia’s Widjaja family, in the battle to woo Fibria, according to people familiar with the deal.
While the price of the deal was not immediately available, one person familiar with the negotiations said Paper Excellence had offered R$71.50 ($21.76) per share for Fibria, which would have valued the company at just below R$40bn.
Fibria and Suzano, which are the first and second largest producers of eucalyptus pulp in the world, have a combined market value of about $19bn. The operation combines the two biggest pulp producers of the country and transforms them into a world leader in the pulp market. Fibria is 29.42 per cent controlled by Brazilian industrial conglomerate Votorantim while Suzano is controlled by the Feffer family.
