Under the agreement, SKA Invest will buy the former Hydro Aluminium Profiler AS extrusion plant at Raufoss, including its affiliated fabrication plant in Vetlanda, Sweden. SKA earlier acquired other businesses from Hydro – Hydal, Extrusion Tools and Hytrans.

"SKA Invest has in the past acquired several extrusion-related businesses from Hydro and all have experienced good development under their ownership. This is a good solution for employees, customers and Sapa," says Sapa CEO Svein Tore Holsether.

The Raufoss extrusion plant consists of three extrusion presses with a total capacity of around 30,000 metric tons. The unit has administration, sales, extrusion, and surface treatment and employs around 170 people. The affiliated plant in Sweden employs around 40 people, with functions for sales and customer support, and a unit for fabrication and processing of aluminium extrusions.

"The operations at Raufoss and the fabrication unit in Sweden will complete our value chain from die making to the production of extrusions, and contribute to added value and finished products. We believe this will be a strong and vital group of companies, with Raufoss including its fabrication unit in Sweden at the core," says SKA Invest CEO Ståle Karlsen.

Approval from the EU Commission for the merger between Hydro's extrusion operation and Sapa, which closed on September 1, was conditional on a sale of Hydro's aluminium profile operations at Raufoss in Norway and its affiliated fabrication plant in Sweden, as well as Sapa's multi-port extrusion operations in Harderwijk in the Netherlands. The process to sell Sapa's operations in Harderwijk is still ongoing.

Completion of the transaction between SKA Invest and Sapa is dependent upon approval by the EU Commission.