The London-headquartered packaging giant said the sales of the businesses, based in north-west France and Portugal, would fulfil the commitment it made to the European Commission in relation to the clearance of its acquisition of Europac, which was completed in January.

Completion of the two sales is subject to customary closing conditions including works council consultation and regulatory approvals and is expected to take place in the first half of DS Smith’s financial year 2019/2020.

Group chief executive Miles Roberts said: “I am delighted that we are on track to meet our commitment to the European Commission with both an attractive price and a good home for the businesses in International Paper.”

Last month DS Smith confirmed the sale of its plastics division to US private equity firm Olympus Partners in a deal worth nearly £450m. The business first revealed its intentions to sell the division in December, following an initial review of its plastics business initiated earlier in 2018.

DS Smith’s share price was up by 1.5% to 357.5p at the time of writing.