RusForest appoints Jeppe Strange as COO, a former financial director of IKEA-controlled Swedwood's manufacturing, logging operations in Esipovo and Tikhvin

Wendy Lisney

STOCKHOLM , November 18, 2011 (press release) – RusForest AB (publ) ("RusForest" or "the Company") is pleased to announce that Mr. Jeppe Strange has been appointed COO, effective immediately.

Jeppe Strange, a Danish citizen born in 1953, has held several top management positions within leading foreign controlled companies in Russia during the past 15 years. Over the past four years Mr. Strange has been instrumental in building a successful pig farming operation in Kaliningrad in western Russia, as General Director of Russia Baltic Pork Invest ASA of Norway as well as their Russian entities ZAO Pravdinsk Pig Production and ZAO MIR. Over the past months he has been engaged as a consultant to the Board of Directors of Russia Baltic Pork Invest - and as such been spearheading the establishment of three new pig farms in Russia, with a total investment budget of more than SEK 1 billion.

Prior to joining Russia Baltic Pork Invest, Mr. Strange held various managerial positions within the IKEA controlled Swedwood organization in Russia - among them Financial Director of Swedwood's 22,000 square meter furniture manufacturing facility in Esipovo in Moscow Oblast and of the logging, sawmill and glued board production operation in Tikhvin in Leningrad Oblast.

Jeppe Strange holds an MSc in Economics from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark.

"We are very happy to be able to welcome Jeppe Strange to RusForest. By appointing him Chief Operating Officer we have taken a major step in our efforts to further strengthen the Company's management team. Together with the rest of the team, our CEO Martin Hermansson and Mr. Strange will make sure that we reach the level of operational excellence that we have set out to reach by continuously improving our harvesting and sawmilling business - in order to unlock the huge values we see being created within the Russian forestry sector over the years to come", comments RusForest's Chairman Kenneth Eriksson.

About RusForest AB (publ)

RusForest is forestry and sawmilling company operating in Eastern Siberia and the Arkhangelsk region of Russia. The Company controls long term forest leases with an annual allowable cut of approximately 3.6 million m³, and utilizes these resources to produce a wide range of sawnwood products. Eastern Siberia is renowned for its pine and larch of exceptional quality, while the Arkhangelsk Region in northwest Russia has high quality spruce and pine forests similar to those found in northern Sweden.

RusForest's goal is to develop into a leading independent integrated forestry and sawmilling company in Russia with an annual harvesting of 2.7 to 2.9 million m3 and an annual saw production of 800,000 to 850,000 m3.

RusForest AB's Certified Adviser on First North is E. Öhman J:or Fondkommission AB.

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