Johannesburg – Following its 9 September 2013 announcement of its intention to delist its American Depositary Shares ("ADSs"), which are evidenced by American Depositary Receipts ("ADRs"), from the New York Stock Exchange ("NYSE"), Sappi Limited ("Sappi" or the "Company") (NYSE: SPP) confirms that the delisting of its ADSs from the NYSE became effective today, as scheduled. This follows the filing by Sappi of a Form 25 with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") on 19 September 2013.
Sappi's ADRs will now be traded in the U.S. through a Level I over-the-counter ADR program.
In addition, Sappi has filed a Form 15F with the SEC today to terminate the Company's registration and reporting obligations under the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the "Exchange Act"). Sappi's reporting obligations under the Exchange Act were suspended by the filing of Form 15F with the SEC. Sappi expects that the deregistration will become effective and Sappi's reporting obligations will be terminated on 30 December 2013, 90 days after the filing of Form 15F. The anticipated effective date may be delayed if the SEC objects or requests an extended review or for other reasons.
Sappi's ordinary shares will continue trading on JSE Limited in South Africa.
For more information about the Company, please visit www.sappi.com.
Forward-looking statements
Certain statements in this release that are neither reported financial results nor other historical information, are forward-looking statements, including but not limited to statements that are predictions of or indicate future earnings, savings, synergies, events, trends, plans or objectives.
The words "believe", "anticipate", "expect", "intend", "estimate", "plan", "assume", "positioned", "will", "may", "should", "risk" and other similar expressions, which are predictions of or indicate future events and future trends, which do not relate to historical matters, identify forward-looking statements. You should not rely on forward-looking statements because they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which are in some cases beyond our control and may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from anticipated future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements (and from past results, performance or achievements). Certain factors that may cause such differences include but are not limited to:
- the highly cyclical nature of the pulp and paper industry (and the factors that contribute to such cyclicality, such as levels of demand, production capacity, production, input costs including raw material, energy and employee costs, and pricing);
- the impact on our business of the global economic downturn;
- unanticipated production disruptions (including as a result of planned or unexpected power outages);
- changes in environmental, tax and other laws and regulations;
- adverse changes in the markets for our products;
- the emergence of new technologies and changes in consumer trends including increased preferences for digital media;
- consequences of our leverage, including as a result of adverse changes in credit markets that affect our ability to raise capital when needed;
- adverse changes in the political situation and economy in the countries in which we operate or the effect of governmental efforts to address present or future economic or social problems;
- the impact of restructurings, investments, acquisitions, dispositions and other strategic initiatives (including related financing), any delays, unexpected costs or other problems experienced in connection with dispositions or with integrating acquisitions or implementing restructurings or strategic initiatives (including dissolving pulp conversion projects), and achieving expected savings and synergies; and
- currency fluctuations.
We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any of these forward-looking statements, whether to reflect new information or future events or circumstances or otherwise.
Contact a Sappi Representative
Olga Karagiannis
+1 617 423 5049
