traded as nasdaq helsinki steav nasdaq helsinki sterv otcqx seoay isin fi0009005953 fi0009005961 industry paper and packaging founded 1998 1347 headquarters helsinki finland key people gunnar brock chairman karl henrik sundstr m ceo products packaging board biomaterials wood products and paper revenue 10.040 billion 2015 1 operating income 1.059 billion 2015 1 profit 783 million 2015 1 total assets 12.361 billion end 2015 1 total equity 5.513 billion end 2015 1 owners government of finland 25.1 % of voting rights and 10.1 % of voting rights via social insurance institution of finland fam ab 27.3 % of voting rights 2 number of employees 26 000 2015 3 website www.storaenso.com stora enso oyj swedish stu ra and finnish enso is a pulp and paper manufacturer headquartered in helsinki finland with significant operations in four continents . the company was formed by the merger of swedish mining and forestry products company stora ab and finnish forestry products company enso oyj in 1998 . it has approximately 26 000 employees 2015 . 3 for 2014 stora enso was ranked fifth in the world by sales among forest paper and packaging industry companies . 4 the first share of the company dates back to 1288 and it is claimed that stora enso is thus the oldest limited liability company in the world . 5 contents 1 history 1.1 history of stora 1.2 history of enso 1.3 history of stora enso 2 market 2.1 products and services by division 2.1.1 consumer board 2.1.2 packaging solutions 2.1.3 biomaterials 2.1.4 wood products 2.1.5 paper 2.2 sales by region 3 operations 3.1 headquarters 3.2 joint ventures 4 governance 4.1 key people 4.2 ownership 4.3 language 5 controversies 5.1 cartel 5.2 accusations of wrongful accounting 5.3 environmental concerns 5.4 human rights concerns 6 corporate responsibility 7 see also 8 references 9 external links history edit stora enso was formed by the merger of swedish mining and forestry products company stora and finnish forestry products company enso oyj in 1998 . history of stora edit 1 8 share of the stora kopparberg mine dated june 16 1288 . the swedish copper mining company stora kopparberg great copper mountain in falun was granted a charter from king magnus iv of sweden in 1347 although the oldest preserved share in the company granting the bishop of v ster s 12.5 % ownership dates from 1288 . some claim this to be the oldest existing corporation or limited liability company in the world . 5 6 for some periods during the 17th century the mine provided two thirds of the world production of copper . in the 18th century the copper mining gradually decreased in importance and therefore in 1731 the company bought its first iron ore mine . by the 1860s iron ore was economically more important to the company than copper . stora kopparbergs bergslags ab was incorporated as a modern shareholder company in 1862 . towards the end of the 19th century it diversified from mining and entered pulp and paper production . in the 1970s most of the mining and steel mill operations of the company were divested and the focus changed to forestry related activities . in 1984 the company name was shortened to stora ab . the copper mine closed down in 1992 . in 1997 the year before the merger with enso stora had 20 400 employees and a turnover of 44.5 billion sek . the company owned 2.3 million hectares of forest of which 1.6 million hectares an area larger than connecticut in sweden and the rest in canada portugal and brazil . it also produced 7.5 twh of mostly hydroelectric power . a 1997 article in harvard business review praised stora s ability to adapt to changing circumstances over the centuries . 6 7 in 1998 the company merged with enso to form stora enso . history of enso edit headquarters built for enso gutzeit oy in the port area of helsinki designed by alvar aalto 1962 enso gutzeit oy was founded in the 19th century in norway as w. gutzeit & co. by wilhelm gutzeit the half brother of industrialist benjamin wegner . his son hans gutzeit moved the company to finland where it became the largest forestry company in the country . enso gutzeit osakeyhti bought a. ahlstr m osakeyhti s forest industries at varkaus in december 1986 . in 1995 a decision was made to merge two state owned forest giants together . the merger materialized next year when enso gutzeit oy and north finland based veitsiluoto oy formed enso oyj . in 1998 the company merged with stora to form stora enso . history of stora enso edit after the merger stora enso expanded its operations by acquiring wood products businesses and bought paper merchant businesses in europe . in 2000 the company bought consolidated papers in north america . stora enso also slowly expanded its operations in south america asia and russia . in 2000 stora enso acquired the north american pulp and paper manufacturer consolidated papers for eur 4.9 billion . 8 the acquisition has in hindsight been noted in the financial press as a massive value destroyer . 9 10 in the same year stora enso and assidom n formed a joint company billerud ab to produce packaging paper . in 2002 stora enso started investigating the possibility of establishing plantations and production facilities in guangxi china . 11 12 in the same year the company was the fifth largest pulp and paper manufacturer in terms of revenue and in 2005 it was the world s largest pulp and paper manufacturer in terms of production capacity . citation needed in recent years when the company has gone through heavy restructuring . the north american operations were divested in 2007 to newpage corporation . stora enso has sold and closed down some of its mills in finland sweden and germany . the closure of a plant in kemij rvi in 2008 and subsequent events were subject to significant finnish media coverage . 13 14 15 in 2009 stora enso entered into a joint venture in uruguay called montes del plata with access to 250 000 hectares of woodland and the intention to build a large capacity mill . 16 17 18 the mill started operating in june 2014 . 19 in 2010 stora enso acquired a 30 percent stake in the printed paper packaging manufacturer inpac . 20 21 as of 2014 stora enso owned 49 percent of inpac . 22 in september 2012 stora enso signed an agreement with packages ltd. the largest packaging company of pakistan to set up a joint venture named bulleh shah packaging pvt. ltd. at kasur pakistan . between 2006 and 2014 the share of paper products of the total sales has decreased from 62 percent to 38 percent while packaging and wood products have increased their shares of the revenue as the company according to bloomberg news is betting on renewable packaging as online shopping grows . 19 23 currently 2015 stora enso is investing in biomaterials and renewable construction products as possible future growth areas . 6 24 market edit products and services by division edit as of 2016 stora enso offers products and services through five corporate divisions . the sales figures by division for 2015 were as follows . 1 sales by division 2015 million eur external internal total consumer board 2 331 9 2 340 packaging solutions 888 25 913 biomaterials 1 001 483 1 484 wood products 1 497 106 1 603 paper 3 526 104 3 630 other 797 1 681 2 478 consumer board edit the consumer board division previously before 2015 part of a division called renewable packaging sells varieties of paperboard for packaging of dry and liquid products including food as well as for graphic printing purposes . 3 19 packaging solutions edit the packaging solutions division previously before 2015 part of a division called renewable packaging sells corrugated fiberboard other types of paperboard used in production of packaging containers as well as complete packaging boxes and equipment and services related to packaging production . 3 19 biomaterials edit the biomaterials division sells pulp as well as additional products that can be extracted biochemically from wood and other sorts of biomass . 3 wood products edit the wood products division previously before 2015 called building and living sells construction materials and fuels that have been produced using wood as a raw material . 3 19 paper edit the paper division previously before 2015 called printing and reading sells paper for commercial printing and office use as well as services for the printing industry such as paper supply management . 3 19 sales by region edit in 2015 the regional sales distribution was as follows . 3 region percent of sales 2015 europe 75 % asia 15 % south america 2 % north america 2 % other countries 5 % operations edit stora enso has the majority of its operations europe but also a significant presence in the americas and asia . the following table lists the number of employees and the corporate divisions by region . 3 country region employees 2015 excluding joint ventures in asia divisions finland 6 600 in europe all divisions are represented sweden 5 000 germany 1 700 poland 1 900 russia 1 100 other european countries 3 900 total for european countries 20 200 united states 50 biomaterials brazil 710 biomaterials paper uruguay 330 biomaterials china 5 100 consumer board packaging solutions paper pakistan consumer board laos 140 biomaterials headquarters edit the stora enso headquarters in helsinki was designed 1959 1962 by alvar aalto as the head office of enso gutzeit oy . the building has been in use since 1961 . in 2008 stora enso sold the building to the german property company deka immobilien gmbh for 30 million and started renting the building from westinvest interselect part of deka group while also declaring its intention to move to other rented premises in the helsinki area . as of 2016 stora enso is still headquartered in the same building . 25 26 27 28 joint ventures edit stora enso has a 35 percent stake in the packaging joint venture bulleh shah packaging in pakistan . veracel is a joint venture between stora enso 50 percent ownership and fibria in brazil . 22 in uruguay stora enso 50 percent ownership and arauco operate the montes del plata joint venture . 22 governance edit key people edit since 2014 karl henrik sundstr m born 1960 has been the ceo of stora enso . 29 previous ceos were jouko karvinen from 2007 to 2014 and jukka h rm l from the creation of stora enso in 1998 to 2007 . 19 30 31 at the annual general meeting 28 april 2016 the following persons were elected as members of the board of directors . 32 33 name year of birth gunnar brock chairman 1950 jorma eloranta vice chairman 1951 anne brunila 1957 elisabeth fleuriot 1956 hock goh 1955 mikael m kinen 1956 richard nilsson 1970 hans str berg 1957 ownership edit as of july 2016 the finnish state is through the state owned solidium fund the largest owner by number of shares and the second largest by number of votes . the wallenberg family foundations through fam ab is the largest owner by number of votes and the second largest by number of shares . 2 largest owners by votes 29 july 2016 percent of shares percent of votes fam ab 10.2 27.3 solidium oy 12.3 25.1 social insurance institution of finland 3.3 10.1 varma mutual pension insurance company 2 6.6 mp bolagen i vetlanda ab mp skog aktiebolag estate of werner von seydlitz 1.2 2.2 ilmarinen mutual pension insurance company 2.2 2 erik johan ljungberg s education foundation 0.5 0.8 the state pension fund finland 1.1 0.4 nordea investment funds 1 0.3 bergslaget s healthcare foundation 0.3 0.3 language edit following the merger english became the lingua franca