The group announced in May that it would divest its Russian operations due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

The Russian business was substantial, and prior to the war in Ukraine had accounted for around 12% of Mondi’s €6.66bn (£5.73bn) turnover by location.

The biggest operation, Syktyvkar pulp and paper mill, was sold to Russian billionaire Viktor Kharitonin’s Augment Investments over the summer, although the deal is yet to complete.

Today (15 December), Mondi announced that it had agreed a deal to sell its three remaining packaging converting operations – comprising a corrugated plant and two flexible packaging sites – to Gotek Group for RUB1.6bn, around €24m.

Gotek Group specialises in corrugated and flexible packaging and is one of Russia’s biggest packaging groups operating from multiple sites. 

Mondi said the loss on the disposal was likely to be between €70m-€80m at current exchange rates.

The disposal is conditional on approval by Russian Federation’s Government Sub-Commission for the Control of Foreign Investments – this was also the case for the Syktyvkar sale, and Mondi noted that approval for the earlier deal was still outstanding. 

It expects the Gotek deal to complete in the first half of 2023.

“However, as the disposal is being undertaken in an evolving political and regulatory environment, there can be no certainty as to when the disposal will be completed,” Mondi noted. 

In Q3 Mondi’s Russian plants, which are now classified as discontinued operations held for sale, generated profit after tax of €104m.

Mondi also has a plant in Ukraine that makes paper bags, located in Lviv to the west of the country, around 70km from the Polish border. Production there was suspended following the Russian invasion. At the time of writing it was not clear whether production had been restarted since.