Pulp and paper producer Sappi released solid-enough results for its second quarter this week, but still has plenty of ground to make up to catch rival Mondi. In his results presentation, Sappi CEO Steve Binnie played down the company's apparent recovery, saying the profit of R661.7-million was "in line with expectations", despite the fact that this was sharply above the R378.1-million for the same period last year.During the quarter, Sappi managed to repay its 2018 and 2019 bonds, by issuing a new à450-million (about R6-billion) seven-year bond, with a coupon of 3.38%, as well as using its European revolving-credit facility.The bottom line was that Sappi's net debt dropped by R1.47-billion, partly thanks to favourable exchange rates on the translation of its debt.But it was rival Mondi that stole the show this week.Mondi said its first-quarter operating profit would be à236-million - 29% above the previous year, thanks to better volumes and lower input costs in Europe, and higher selling prices in Russia and South Africa. Investors piled into Mondi, sending its stock price 10.6% higher by the end of the week. By contrast, Sappi's share price barely budged after its update.Farai Mapfinya, head of equities at JM Busha, said the strategies of Sappi and Mondi - both long since expanded from South African operations to become global operators - differed materially."Sappi has been engaged in long-term restructuring, which is now at the tail end, and it has chosen to focus on paper and specialised cellulose. Mondi, with the exception of the Mpact disposal, retains a diversified uncoated fine paper portfolio and packaging," he said.Mapfinya said that while Sappi had been focusing on internal improvement, Mondi had powered forward with a stream of new capital projects and acquisitions that were beginning to contribute to profitability.He said Mondi's capital allocation had proved far superior relative to Sappi, and compared with the debt position of Sappi - still 62.8% net debt to total capitalisation - Mondi sat with way less gearing, and "has ample scope to reduce this even further given the cash they have on the balance sheet"...