Navigator : present at FACIM

Press Release - 23 August 2016

Company presents innovations at the 52nd edition of FACIM

• Stand located in the Portuguese pavilion at FACIM, reflecting the company's importance in Mozambique

The Navigator Company is set to step up its presence at FACIM, Mozambique's premium agricultural, commercial and industrial fair, now in its 52nd year, at which it will present new products and business areas from 29 August to 4 September, in the Portuguese pavilion.

The Company will use the event as a launchpad for its rebranding as The Navigator Company in Mozambique, underlining its important local presence. The brand is active in the country through Portucel Moçambique, which is pursuing one of the largest integrated forestry and industrial development projects. The venture involves total investment of around 2,600 million dollars, with IFC, the World Bank financial institution, as the company's partner. The project also includes building one of the largest paper pulp mills in Africa.

The Company will also step up its presence in Mozambique by supplying tissue paper to the local market, which will be distributed through local partners, where it already distributes Navigator, the world's best-selling brand of premium office paper, as well as Soporset, Europe's top-selling premium uncoated offset and pre-print paper.

During the event, visitors to the Navigator Company's stand (Portuguese Pavilion, Stand 10) will have the chance not just to discover the Company's new image, launched in February this year (although in Mozambique it will retain the Portucel Moçambique name), but also to learn about the progress on the project under way in Manica and Zambézia provinces, over a total area of 356 thousand hectares.

The Navigator Company is the new face of the former Portucel Soporcel group, after its rebranding in February 2016.

The Navigator Company is Portugal's third leading exporter, and the exporter generating the highest level of national value added. The Group accounts for approximately 1% of Portugal's GDP, around 3% of the country's total exports of goods, close to 8% of all containerized cargo and 7% of all containerized and conventional cargo exported through Portuguese ports.

In 2015, the Group set a new all-time record for paper output, and increased its turnover by 5.6% to more than € 1.6 billion.

Having consolidated its position as the leading European manufacturer, and the sixth largest in the world, of uncoated woodfree (UWF) printing and writing paper, The Navigator Company is also Europe's top producer of BEKP (Bleached Eucalyptus Kraft Pulp), the fifth largest in the world, and has entered the tissue market, where it expects to become one of the key players in the continent.

The Group has successfully pursued a strategy of innovation and development of its own brands, which today account for 62% of sales of manufactured products. Special mention should be made of the Navigator brand, the world's best-selling product in the premium office paper segment.

The Navigator Company sells its products to 130 countries over five continents, with a special focus on Europe and the US, giving it the broadest export base of any Portuguese company.

As a vertically integrated forestry group with its own forestry research institute, it leads the world in the genetic improvement of the Eucalyptus globulus. It manages vast tracts of forest in Portugal certified under the FSC® and PEFC™ systems (FSC license C010852 and PEFC license 13-23-001), and boasts annual production capacity for 1.6 million tons of paper, 1.4 million tons of pulp (of which 1.1 million is integrated into paper) and power generation of 2.5 TWh, adding up to annual turnover of approximately 1.6 billion euros.

The Navigator Company operates one of Europe's largest nurseries for forestry plants, with annual production capacity of approximately 12 million certified plants of various species, destined for use in renewing Portugal's woodlands.

As part of its strategy for expansion, the Group recently acquired a tissue paper mill and is implementing a major vertically integrated forestry project in Mozambique, as well as building a new pellets factory in the US.

www.thenavigatorcompany.com

Lift Consulting: +351 21 466 65 00

Joana Branquinho - joana.branquinho@lift.com.pt / + 351 91 318 43 02

Sofia Lareiro - Sofia.lareiro@lift.com.pt / + 351 93 484 74 92