The Tamar Valley Pulp Mill vision is still alive, according to the company overseeing the sale of assets from failed timber giant Gunns. Sources: The Herald Sun, ABC News, The Australian
Gunns Ltd receivers KordaMentha issued a statement saying an undisclosed number of investors had expressed interest in pursuing the pulp mill opportunity.
The company said there had been strong interest in Gunns’ assets, which include a wood-chipping business, associated land and timber plantations and the site and permits for a pulp mill.
KordaMentha said it had received a number of expressions of interest during the first stage of the sale process and six parties had been taken through to the due diligence stage.
“Some of the parties in the final six are interested in the pulp mill opportunity while others are only interested in the wood-chipping business and associated assets,” the company said.
It said there had been interest from the Asia Pacific region, Europe and the Americas. Resources Minister Bryan Green welcomed the news, saying the Government had “never lost faith in the project”.
“The Government, through the process of the Tasmanian Forests Agreement, has been seeking to ensure Tasmania is investment-ready for any downstream processing opportunities in the forest industry,” Green said.
“The Government is continuing to do whatever it can to give the (pulp mill) project the best chance of going ahead.”
Greens MP Kim Booth said there was “zero chance” of the pulp mill going ahead, saying any new potential investors would eventually “bolt” as the Richard Chandler Corporation did in 2012.
“I wonder whether KordaMentha are offering steak knives with the pulp mill permit as well,” Booth said. “Like the Tasmanian tiger and the fox, I’ll never believe it until they produce a scat from this elusive pulp mill investor.”
Investment management company New Forests, which is buying up tree plantations in Tasmania including former Gunns controlled land, this month ruled out becoming a pulp mill investor.
KordaMentha spokesman Michael Smith said some of the final six are interested in the pulp mill.
“Some who are interested in the plantation assets, some who are interested in the woodchipping business, some who are interested in two out of three, some interested in three out of three,” he said.
“All the focus and the sort of public debate has been on the pulp mill but people forget that the rest of the assets, particularly the timber, and the plantations, they’re world-class.
“There’s not much of this stuff available around the world. There’s quite a bit of interest in that as well.”
Smith said the assets are all in Tasmania and include a number of sawmills and timber treatment centres.
He said woodchip exports have continued since Gunns went into receivership.
“There is interest from across the globe, the Asia-Pacific region, Europe and the Americas,” said the Gunns receiver in an email.
Half of the 200,000ha for sale in the Gunns auction is private reserve consisting of native woodland not intended for harvest. The remaining 100,000ha has attracted keen interest from timber investors and pension funds.
“Gunns is the last basket of fibre that can be secured in a politically stable country,” said a person familiar with Gunns. Other timber assets for sale in China or South America are viewed as risky investments because of the volatile political climate that has historically characterised those countries.
Final bids are expected by the end of March.
Tasmanian farmers have welcomed the news six potential buyers are entering the second phase of the sale process.
The Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association’s Jan Davis said many farmers are owed money by Gunns and they just want the situation resolved.
“It doesn’t matter how many buyers we have going into the process, we just want one good solid one coming out,” she said.
“So we’d like to see a process that gives that outcome, that there is still someone still standing at the end of it with a cheque book open because that’s what farmers need out of this.”
