By Rob Curran

International Paper said it was splitting into two publicly traded companies--keeping its brand for North American operations and creating a new company for Europe, Middle East and Africa operations.

Separately, IP posted a wider fourth-quarter loss as higher costs and an asset impairment charge weighed.

IP said Thursday that the EMEA company will contain assets in that region acquired as part of IP's recent purchase of DS Smith. DS Smith's North American assets will stay inside the International Paper company, it said.

"During the past year, we have created two regional powerhouses with scale, strong customer relationships, leading brands and talented teams," said IP Chairman and Chief Executive Andy Silvernail, in a statement. "The two businesses operate in distinct market environments and are at different stages of their transformation."

Also on Thursday, the maker of paper and packaging products logged a fourth-quarter loss of $2.38 billion, or $4.52 a share, wider than its loss of $147 million, or 42 cents a share, a year earlier.

Stripping out certain one-off items such as an impairment charge related to the sale of a unit, the Memphis, Tenn., company logged an adjusted loss of 8 cents a share, far narrower than the average analyst target for a loss of 27 cents a share, as per FactSet.

Sales surged 53% to $6.01 billion, topping the average analyst target of $5.91 billion.

IP last week closed its sale of its cellulose-fibers unit for $1.5 billion to American Industrial Partners.

For the first quarter, IP targeted adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization from continuing operations in a range between $740 million and $760 million.

For 2026, IP targeted adjusted Ebitda from continuing operations in a range between $3.5 billion and $3.7 billion.

Write to Rob Curran at rob.curran@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 29, 2026 07:38 ET (12:38 GMT)

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