Hartwall Capital Oy Ab and Karelia Finland Oy have agreed on the acquisition of all Karelia Upofloor Oy shares owned by the latter. Karelia Finland's ownership was 33.3 percent. After the acquisition Hartwall Capital and its stakeholders own ninetynine percent of the group. They became shareholders of Karelia-Upofloor flooring group already in 2004. Karelia Finland Oy is owned by Heikki Väänänen and his family. Karelia-Upofloor is at present in a transitional period towards intensive international activities and growth which will naturally require further additional capital from the owners. The company's investments in hardwood flooring business in Finland, Russia and Rumania are proceeding as planned.
The Hartwall family has to withdraw this spring from their traditional brewery business invest-ment thus enabling them to increase their investment in Karelia-Upofloor. ‘We find Karelia-Upofloor a very interesting company which has good opportunities especially in Russia. We believe that wood will increase its popularity as a flooring material', says Erik Hartwall, Hartwall Capital's Chairman of the Board.
Heikki Väänänen will soon have forty years behind on the hardwood flooring business, nearly thirty of them as an entrepeneur. After his life's succesful work he does not want to take the extensive challenge which the strong growth represents for him as an owner, nor to prevent the growth of a company which has already reached quite much.
As the shareholder agreement made in 2004 with Hartwall Capital enabled this year for the first time to sell the shares he considered the time to be suitable for giving up his ownership in the company. He will be elected a member of Karelia-Upofloor's Board of directors, thus bringing his long experience of the international hardwood and flooring markets to the the Board.
Additional information:
Hartwall Capital Oy Ab
Managing director Klaus Grönbärj
klaus.gronbarj@hartwallcapital.fi
Karelia Finland Oy
Chairman of the Board Heikki Väänänen
heikki.vaananen@kareliaupofloor.com