ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Keita Ishii, President, and COO; hereinafter "ITOCHU") announced today an additional investment in Paptic Oy / Ltd (headquartered in Espoo, Finland; Tuomas Mustonen, CEO and co-founder; hereinafter "Paptic"). With this acquisition of additional shares, ITOCHU will become a major shareholder of Paptic and strengthen its cooperation with Paptic to enhance the corporate value of Paptic through the pursuit of synergies.

ITOCHU was originally introduced to Paptic by the Commercial Section of the Embassy of Finland in 2020, and since its initial investment, ITOCHU has been operating as Paptic's strategic marketing partner in Japan. ITOCHU has acquired the exclusive marketing rights of Paptic in the Japanese market through a capital and business alliance with Paptic in September 2021.

Since the initial investment, Paptic has been capturing the increasing demand for sustainable packaging materials in Europe. Its performance has been growing rapidly due to the steady growth in demand for sustainable flexible packaging applications (alternative to plastic) and in conventional applications such as carrier bags (alternative to paper and plastic bags) and e-commerce shipping package (alternative to plastic). The wood-fiber based Paptic materials hold significant potential for reducing environmental impact due to their renewability and recyclability alongside cardboard and packaging papers.

ITOCHU has decided to make an additional investment in Paptic to boost research and development of alternative materials for plastic for flexible packaging applications e.g., for hygiene products, electrical appliances, etc., ITOCHU will further utilize the ITOCHU Group's global network to strengthen sales in Europe, the United States, Japan, China, and other Asian regions.

ITOCHU has raised "Contribute to and strengthen initiatives in the SDGs" as one of the Basic Policies in our medium-term management plan and will accelerate to develop sustainable society by reducing its environmental impact by taking this business partnership with Paptic as a significant milestone to increase our focus on the sustainable wood-fiber-based material business.

I want to thank ITOCHU and their team for their continuous support. Our cooperation has been very fruitful in developing new applications and business opportunities. The new investments enable us to take the next step in our company’s journey to boost our growth towards new markets.

Paptic Ltd is a high-growth company established in 2015 with headquarters in Espoo, Finland. The company has developed Paptic®, fibre-based and recyclable materials to replace plastics and other conventional materials in packaging. Paptic® materials have been available on an industrial scale since 2018. Today Paptic is a company of 35 professionals, and Paptic® materials are delivered to over 50 countries.
www.paptic.com