Egypt privatizes its National Paper Company

The state-owned Egyptian group, National Paper Company, is up for grabs. Some 90% of the company’s shares are being sold off as part of the Egyptian government’s privatization program. The remaining 10% will be reserved for company employees.

The company is located in El-Tabia near Alexandria and has a design capacity of 124,250 tons/yr on six machines, although the mill is currently running at around 50,000 tons/yr. The product range includes kraft paper, fluting, kraftliner, carton and duplex grades, as well as printing/writing papers.

Since 1995, the company has been hit by declining sales and operating profits, mainly due to increased competition from higher quality imports.

Difficult market conditions have prompted National Paper Company to take steps to control the fall in earnings.

The US consultant, Jacobs-Sirrine Engineers, was appointed to review the company’s facilities. The consultant’s report confirmed the potential for a turnaround of existing operations. Arthur Andersen was chosen to lead the privatization project.

National Paper Company is a fullyowned affiliate of Chemicals Holding Company, which is 100% governmentowned.

tags
privatization project privatization program arthur andersen egyptian group quality imports sirrine tabia egyptian government kraft paper writing papers holding company carton grabs duplex jacobs turnaround alexandria chemicals earnings profits

This entry was posted on Friday, February 20th, 1998 at 10:16 pm and is filed under kraft liner news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.