UPM to spin off plywood arm WISA, listing on Nasdaq Helsinki on November 2
What's the deal? UPMDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →-Kymmene's board has decided to complete the partial demerger of its plywood business into a new company, WISA Group Plc, with completion set to register in the Finnish Trade Register on October 31, 2026. UPM shareholders will receive one WISA share for each UPM share they hold, totalling about 527,324,046 shares. WISA is expected to begin trading on Nasdaq Helsinki on or about November 2, 2026, under the code "WISA".
Why now? The move follows a long approval process: UPM announced the demerger plan on April 29, 2026, and its extraordinary general meeting approved it on August 31. On October 28, the Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority cleared a supplement to WISA's listing prospectus, adding fresher numbers just before the float.
What's in the supplement? The update covers WISA's unaudited carve-out financial information for the nine months ended September 30, 2026, plus its guidance, outlook, and technical amendments. UPM is publishing the supplement on WISA's behalf; the carve-out figures may not reflect WISA's future standalone profitability.
What's the endgame? After completion, UPM and WISA will operate as separate, independent companies. UPM keeps its share count unchanged and continues trading under "UPM". The carve-out follows UPM's strategic review of plywood, shedding a unit to focus on its core renewable-fibre and materials portfolio.
UPM describes itself as a material solutions company spanning renewable fibres, advanced materials, decarbonization solutions, and communication papers. It employs roughly 15,100 people and reported annual sales of about €9.7 billion.
The signal: The split fits a wider Nordic forestry trend of carving out and listing standalone assets — Stora EnsoDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → is preparing to separate its Swedish forest holdings into a listed company expected in the first half of 2027. For WISA, the listing is a capital-markets milestone rather than an operational reset, arriving against a backdrop of customer destocking and cost inflation.
Read more: placera.se
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