Moulton buys office products firm

DS Smith has greed to sell its Spicers European office products arm to Spain's Unipapel in a £200m deal as it focuses on its packaging business.

Unipapel in turn has agreed to offload the UK and Irish operations of the business to Jon Moulton's Better Capital investment firm, which has set up a £40m special purpose vehicle for the transaction.

Analysts welcomed the move, which follows DS Smith's strategic review last year, with the Evolution Securities' Harry Philips saying that he had been expecting Spicers to sell for around £150m. The division booked £715m in revenues in the year to the end of April.