This is the way the script has been playing out in the paper and packaging sector. One of the big listed companies reports a bumper set of results and shares across the board fall.
True to form, Mondi reported a 25 per cent increase in annual pre-tax profits to just over €1.1 billion yesterday and the shares dropped more than 6 per cent to close 116½p lower at £17.28½. DS Smith and Smurfit Kappa each also lost about 3 per cent of their value in sympathy. Something doesn’t feel quite right.
Mondi traces its history back to 1967 when Anglo American, its former owner, constructed the Merebank paper mill in South Africa, though it began to take shape in its current form when the South