Barclays neutral on Holmen, but prefers it over Stora Enso and SCA

Smurfit WestRock

19/08/2024 13:35

** Barclays initiates Holmen  HOLMb.ST  with "equal-weight"
and PT of SEK 390, and says it prefers the Swedish paper
products maker over Stora Enso  STERV.HE  and Svenska Cellulosa
(SCA)  SCAb.ST  (both "underweight")
    ** The brokerage likes Holmen's strategy of expanding its
renewable energy business to extract more value from its forest
land ownership
    ** The focus on extracting value from forest land has led to
higher operational efficiency and Holmen should keep
outperforming Stora and SCA on that front, Barclays says
    ** It adds Holmen's returns to shareholders are higher than
those of its two peers, and says it expects that to continue
    ** However, Holmen's enterprise value is highly dependent on
forest valuation and its exposure to construction industry and
paper, it says
    ** In the European forestry, paper and packaging space,
Barclays' key "overweight" picks are Smurfit WestRock  SWR.L ,
Huhtamaki  HUH1V.HE , SIG  SIGNC.S  and UPM  UPM.HE 
    ** Out of nine analysts that cover Holmen, one rates it
"buy", seven "hold" and one "sell"

 (Reporting by Marta Frąckowiak)
 ((marta.frackowiak@thomsonreuters.com))