<B>Westvaco Plans to Acquire Austrian Firm</B>

Westvaco Corp. agreed to acquire a majority interest in Alfred Wall AG, a European supplier of consumer packaging based in Graz, Austria.

Wall has six packaging plants: one in Austria, one in the United Kingdom, two in Germany and two in Poland. The company operates as two separate business units, general packaging and tobacco packaging. Wall employs about 900 people and has annual sales of about $120 million.

With Wall, Westvaco will have 42 consumer packaging and printing operations, including facilities in 10 U.S. states and Puerto Rico, Austria, Brazil, Germany, Ireland, The Netherlands, Poland, the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom.