<b>Jefferson Smurfit Group Sees Profits Soar<b>

Jefferson Smurfit Group PLC's full-year pretax profit nearly tripled, as higher containerboard prices and the company's acquisitions contributed to the second-best year in its history.

JSG said its 2000 pretax profit rose to $447 million.

Jefferson Smurfit said a number of acquisitions contributed to the results. Last year, the company acquired Neopac AS of Denmark, and Argentinian companies FACCA and Cartonex SA.

Smurfit also acquired a 25% holding in Leefung-Asco Printers Holdings Ltd., a Hong Kong-listed company focused on high-end print and packaging in China. The company has an option to take up a majority holding in Leefung-Asco in three years.

But Smurfit said "the industry is in the middle of its weakest seasonal period compounded by the effects of a slowing global economy." Still, the company said it doesn't expect "earnings to decline to the extent reflected by current market values."

Demand for Smurfit's products in the U.S. declined 0.5% on a per-day basis in 2000. But against that background, the U.S. experienced one of its longest periods of product-price stability, Smurfit said.

In the U.S., Smurfit's pretax profit grew 96%from figures the previous year.