MONTEVIDEO (AFP) - Finland's UPM has completed the purchase of Botnia's pulp production and forestry operations in Uruguay, including 100,000 hectares and a pulp processor that cost 1.1 billion dollars to build.

Botnia's owners -- UPM, Metsaliitto Group and M-real -- "today completed the (ownership restructuring) operation, whereby... the pulp processor at Fray Bentos and the Forestal Oriental of Uruguay company are transferred to UPM," the company said in a statement.

The agreement transfers to UPM 91 percent of the Fray Bentos processor and 100 percent of Oriental's forestry operations in the country, it added.

"The value of the Fray Bentos pulp processor and Forestal Oriental is approximately 1.6 billion dollars," UPM said.

With a production capacity of 1.1 million tons, Botnia's pulp mill in Fray Bentos, 300 kilometers (186 miles) northeast of Montevideo, opened in November 2007 and sparked protests in Argentina because of environmental concerns.

For two years, Argentine protestors have been blocking a bridge across the Uruguay River linking Fray Bentos to Gualeguaychu, in Argentina.

With the acquisition of the Fray Bentos processor, UPM now owns three pulp processors, two of them in Finland, boosting its yearly pulp production to 3.5 million tons.

The company employs 24,000 people in 14 countries and in 2008 made 9.5 million euros in revenues.