“The trend of improving performance continued in the quarter. Demand for our products remained good and prices increased gradually. Pulp prices remained high, benefiting our Southern African and North American businesses, which performed strongly.
Sappi Limited, the global pulp and paper group, today announced that Mark Thompson, the current Chief Financial Officer, will retire from Sappi in August 2012 having reached the mandatory retirement age of 60.
“Following a year in which various actions and strategies were initiated, primarily involving extensive restructuring charges and asset impairments, the group achieved a profit for the period of US$45 million (Q1 2011 US$37 million) and EPS of 9 US cents (Q1 2011 7 US cents) in the first quarter of the 2012 financial year.