Sue Neales Mercury
TASMANIAN timber company Gunns Limited has announced the planned sale of a large swathe of its tree plantations valued at $170 million to pay off corporate debt. In a statement to the Stock Exchange this morning, Gunns forecast that its net profit after tax for the 2008 financial year was likely to be about $67 million. The statement did not detail where the forests to be sold were located, or if the plantations were hard wood (bluegum) or softwood (pine). It said a deal with a potential buyer was in progress. Gunns share price fell 20 cents or more than 8 per cent this morning to $2.11 a share, on suggestions yesterday by Leighton Holdings chief Wal King that the $2 billion Gunns pulp mill in the Tamar valley was unlikely to ever be built. Read more here
ABC Online: Feds still waiting on modules
Matthew Denholm Australian
GUNNS Ltd’s proposed Tasmanian pulp mill is unlikely to “ever happen”, according to Wal King, head of the companies contracted to build the controversial project. Mr King, chief executive of Leighton Holdings, today expressed doubt that the troubled $2 billion project proposed for Long Reach, about 35km north of Launceston, would get off the ground. Read more here
