DUBLIN (From news reports) -- Smurfit Kappa said it has secured all necessary regulatory approvals to proceed with its merger with US box-making peer WestRock next week.

The $25 billion-plus (€23.4 billion) tie-up, being carried out by a so-called scheme of arrangement, requires Irish High Court approval at a hearing due to take place on Tuesday.

Trading in Smurfit Kappa's stock in Dublin will also cease at the close of business on Tuesday.

Shares in the new entity, Smurfit WestRock, will begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Monday and will immediately join key US stock indices, including the S&P 500, the most widely-followed equities index in the world. The company will also retain a secondary listing in London.

The WestRock deal is essentially a takeover by Smurfit Kappa that will see its shareholders own 50.4 per cent of the enlarged group, which will remain headquartered in Dublin. Smurfit Kappa chief executive Tony Smurfit and its chief financial officer, Ken Bowles, will run the new group.

The outlook for the industry has improved significantly from when the merger agreement was announced last September. At the time, box-makers were dealing with a slump in demand that followed a global spike in spending on physical goods, from TVs to patio furniture, during pandemic lockdowns.

It has also been helped by consolidation elsewhere in the sector, with US-based International Paper, which made an unwanted bid for Smurfit Kappa in 2018, agreeing in April to acquire DS Smith in the UK.