PARAGUAY (News release) -- Heinzel Holding GmbH and Paracel S.A. jointly announce that Heinzel has entered into an investment agreement to become the strategic equity investor in Paracel, an afforestation and pulp mill project in Paraguay, South America. Paracel has now received equity commitments from a group of Paraguayan and European business families, with Heinzel's investment completing the needed strategic equity for the project. Heinzel will hold 25% of Paracel's shares at project completion.

Paracel is planning to produce 1.8 million metric tons of eucalyptus pulp per year in Concepción in northern Paraguay, with forestry assets of more than 180,000 hectares of land owned by the company. Since the start of the project in late 2018, the pioneering project has passed important milestones: Paracel has already planted more than 16,000 hectares of forestry, completed the design of the pulp mill, received the construction permit and completed the required environmental and social impact assessments. It has started significant groundworks on the mill site and kicked off social programs and conservation projects for native forests. As one of the world's major afforestation projects it has also completed documentation for the carbon sequestration effect of planting more than one hundred million trees.

Heinzel Group, based in Vienna, Austria, is a growth leader in the pulp and paper industry, with production sites in Austria, Germany and Estonia and a global sales network specialised on emerging markets.