Metsä Board Oyj — Earnings Release 2012

Feb 7, 2013

CORRECTION TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENT BULLETIN: Metsä Board Corporation’s operating result excluding non-recurring items was EUR 74 million in 2012

CORRECTION TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENT BULLETIN: Metsä Board Corporation’s operating result excluding non-recurring items was EUR 74 million in 2012

Correction to the financial statement bulletin published 7 February 2013 at
12:00 noon: Separately announced Board's proposal to AGM for dividend for
financial year 2012 added to the financial statement bulletin.

Metsä Board Corporation Financial Statements 1 January-31 December 2012, 7
February 2013 at 1:30 pm

Full year result for 2012

-- Sales were EUR 2,108 million (Q1-Q4/2011: 2,485).
-- The operating result excluding non-recurring items was EUR 74 million (59).
The operating result including non-recurring items was EUR 220 million
(-214).
-- The result before taxes excluding non-recurring items was EUR 30 million
(0). The result before taxes including non-recurring items was EUR 176
million (-281).
-- Earnings per share excluding non-recurring items were EUR 0.13 (0.02) and
including non-recurring items EUR 0.53 (-0.83).
-- The Board of Directors proposes that a dividend of 0.06 euros per share be
distributed for the financial year 2012.

Result for the fourth quarter of 2012

-- Sales were EUR 509 million (Q3/2012: 532).
-- The operating result excluding non-recurring items was EUR 25 million (25).
The operating result including non-recurring items was EUR 41 million (22).
-- The result before taxes excluding non-recurring items was EUR 12 million
(10). The result before taxes including non-recurring items was EUR 27
million (8).
-- Earnings per share excluding non-recurring items were EUR 0.08 (0.02) and
including non-recurring items EUR 0.13 (0.02).

Events in the fourth quarter of 2012

-- Delivery volumes decreased from the previous quarter mainly due to seasonal
reasons.
-- Average price of linerboard increased. Pulp price took an upward turn. The
average prices of folding boxboard and papers declined slightly.
-- The new biopower plant owned by Pohjolan Voima and Leppäkosken Sähkö was
commissioned at Metsä Board Kyro mill.

Events after the period

-- The Alizay mill site in France, including machines, equipment and
buildings, was sold to Conseil General de l'Eure for EUR 22 million.

“The operating result excluding non-recurring items in the last quarter of 2012
was at the third quarter level, as expected. Folding boxboard delivery volumes
were at a normal level, although slightly lower than in the previous quarter
due to seasonal effects. Demand for linerboard continued to be strong, and the
price increase had a positive impact on the result in the last quarter of the
year. The price of pulp also increased, and demand was good in the last
quarter. Instead, demand for and price level of papers decreased in Europe,
which weakened the profitability of our paper production.

The year 2012 was a significant milestone for our company. We successfully
completed our strategic review, launched in 2006, which has resulted in the
transformation of the company from a paper producer to the leading paperboard
company. The measures to eliminate the last heavy losses of our paper
operations were successfully completed. In the fall of 2012, we completed our
EUR 120 million investment programme, related to which we increased our annual
folding boxboard capacity by approximately 150,000 tonnes, modernized the Kemi
linerboard mill, and increased the use of bioenergy in our production.

Our main targets for the year 2013 are the full utilisation of our expanded
folding boxboard capacity, development and expansion of our current paperboard
product portfolio and improvement of the profitability and cash flow of the
paper and market pulp units”.

Mikko Helander, CEO

KEY FIGURES 2012 2012 2012 2012 2011 2012 2011
Q4 Q3 Q2 Q1 Q4 Q1-Q4 Q1-Q4
-------------------------------------------------
Sales, EUR million 509 532 522 545 524 2,108 2,485

---

EBITDA, EUR million 55 51 189 25 -172 320 -23
excl. non-recurring items, EUR 50 54 47 34 8 185 180
million
EBITDA, % 10.8 9.6 36.2 4.6 -32.8 15.2 -0.9
excl. non-recurring items, % 9.8 10.2 9.0 6.2 1.5 8.8 7.2

---

Operating result, EUR million 41 22 161 -4 -215 220 -214
excl. non-recurring items, EUR 25 25 19 5 -22 74 59
million
EBIT, % 8.1 4.1 30.8 -0.7 -41.0 10.4 -8.6
excl. non-recurring items, % 4.9 4.7 3.6 0.9 -4.2 3.5 2.4

---

Result before taxes, EUR 27 8 159 -18 -230 176 -281
million
excl. non-recurring items, EUR 12 10 17 -9 -33 30 0
million

---

Result for the period, EUR 40 8 140 -15 -209 173 -273
million
excl. non-recurring items, EUR 26 10 14 -6 -12 44 8
million

---

Result per share, EUR 0.13 0.02 0.43 -0.05 -0.63 0.53 -0.83
excl. non-recurring items, EUR 0.08 0.02 0.05 -0.02 -0.04 0.13 0.02

---

Return on equity, % 18.8 3.9 72.9 -8.4 -100.4 21.6 -31.5
excl. non-recurring items, % 12.2 4.8 7.3 -3.1 -5.4 5.5 0.9

---

Return on capital employed, % 8.9 5.2 35.9 -0.4 -43.3 12.3 -9.9
excl. non-recurring items, % 5.7 5.7 5.8 1.7 -3.7 4.7 3.4

---

Equity ratio at end of period, 33.6 31.1 31.0 27.8 27.4 33.6 27.4
%
Gearing ratio at end of 128 138 138 154 154 128 154
period, %
Net gearing ratio at end of 72 70 73 104 106 72 106
period, %
Shareholders' equity per share 2.62 2.51 2.46 2.21 2.23 2.62 2.23
at end of period, EUR
Interest-bearing net 625 580 595 758 783 625 783
liabilities, EUR million
Gross investments, EUR million 28 11 17 10 35 66 95

---

Deliveries, 1 000 tonnes
Paperboard 298 306 289 295 289 1,188 1,388
Paper 162 169 165 185 190 681 908

---

Personnel at the end of period 3,279 3,337 3,597 3,818 4,070 3,279 4,070
Deliveries are not comparable
due to restructuring.
EBITDA = Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and impairment charges

Near-term outlook

Folding boxboard delivery volumes in the last quarter of 2012 were at a normal
level, although seasonally slightly lower than in the previous quarter. Folding
boxboard order volumes are expected to gradually improve at the beginning of
the year and delivery volumes to increase slightly in the first quarter of
2013, compared to the previous quarter. As a result of the completed annual
folding boxboard contract negotiations the volumes are increasing in 2013
compared to 2012 and no material price changes are expected.

Demand for linerboard is expected to continue to be very strong, and delivery
volumes are expected to increase slightly in the first quarter of 2013,
compared to the previous quarter. No significant changes are expected in the
price of linerboard in the coming months.

Delivery volumes of uncoated fine paper are expected to increase slightly in
the first quarter of 2013, compared to the previous quarter, and delivery
volumes of pulp are expected to be at the previous quarter level. No
considerable changes are on the horizon in the price of uncoated fine paper.
The currency-denominated price increase of long-fibre pulp is expected to
continue at the beginning of the year.

The market situation of coated paper has weakened further since the year end,
and delivery volumes and prices are expected to decrease slightly in the first
quarter of 2013.

Production costs are expected to increase slightly in the first quarter of
2013, compared to the previous quarter, primarily due to increased energy
costs.

Metsä Board's operating result for the first quarter of 2013, excluding
non-recurring items, is expected to improve slightly from the fourth quarter of
2012.

Disclosure procedure

Metsä Board Corporation follows the disclosure procedure enabled by Standard
5.2b published by the Finnish Financial Supervision Authority and hereby
publishes its Financial Statements 2012 enclosed to this stock exchange
release. Metsä Board's complete Financial Statements is attached to this
release in pdf-format and is also available on the company's web site at
www.metsaboard.com.

METSÄ BOARD CORPORATION

Further information:

Matti Mörsky, CFO, tel. +358 10 465 4913
Juha Laine, Vice President, Investor Relations and Communications, tel. +358 10
465 4335

More information will be available starting from 1 p.m. on 7 February 2013. A
conference call held in English for investors and analysts starts at 3 p.m.
(EET). Conference call participants are requested to dial in and register a few
minutes prior to the start of the conference call on the following numbers:

Europe: +44 (0)20 7162 0025
US: +1 334 323 6201

The conference ID is 927294.

Metsä Board is Europe's leading manufacturer of folding boxboard, the world's
leading manufacturer of coated white-top kraftliners and a significant supplier
of paper, which offers customers high-quality cartonboard and papers for
consumer and retail packaging as well as graphics industry and office end uses.
The company's sales network serves brand owners, carton printers, manufacturers
of corrugated boards, printing houses, merchants and office suppliers. Metsä
Board is part of Metsä Group and its shares are listed in NASDAQ OMX Helsinki.
In 2012, the company's sales totalled approximately EUR 2.1 billion. The
company has approximately 3,300 employees.

www.metsaboard.com

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