MERRICK Howes’s purchase of the debt of bankrupt Tasmanian timber company Gunns may turn out to be one of New York-based Anchorage Capital Group’s best investment decisions in Australia.
Anchorage may have as much as 70 per cent of Gunns debt, acquired for between 45c and 55c in the dollar from banks including ANZ, which was formerly Gunns’ largest secured creditor.
Howes and his team are hopeful that they will surpass their internal rate of return target on their Gunns investment of 15 per cent to 20 per cent a year as the Gunns auction has drawn bidders from around the world.
Sovereign wealth funds, US timber investment management organisations and pension funds are all anxious to secure 175,680 gross hectares of timber, wood chip mills, a leasehold interest in a Burnie Port facility, nursery operations, a laboratory and a licence to build a paper mill.
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The 139-year-old Gunns is seen as a strategically important global fibre asset in a politically stable country with well-developed infrastructure services such as a secure electricity supply and a port.
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Some of Gunns’ final bidders may be just interested in the company’s trees, the licence to construct a paper mill, or both.
Read the full story here (and you’ll have to pay …)
Tomorrow, Thursday February 27, the No Pulp Mill Alliance is holding a public forum at the Tailrace Centre, Riverside, from 6 pm to 7.30.
Key note speakers at the event are Peg Putt (Markets For Change), and Geoff Cousins (businessman, writer and environmental activist).
Vica Bayley (The Wilderness Society); Kim Booth (Bass Greens’ MP) and Jeremy Ball (Deputy Mayor of Launceston) will make up a panel to answer questions from the audience.
• Tomorrow, Thursday February 27, the No Pulp Mill Alliance is holding public forum at the Tailrace Centre, Riverside, from 6 pm to 7.30. Key note speakers at the event are Peg Putt (Markets For Change), and Geoff Cousins (businessman, writer and environmental activist).
Speaking on behalf of the No Pulp Mill Alliance, Lucy Landon-Lane said, “This forum will be focussing on the economic issues of the proposed Tamar Valley pulp mill. While Liberal and Labor continue to promote this mill as the economic saviour of Tasmania, they have forgotten that the economic and social risks associated with the mill were never assessed.
All the wonderful, clean, green, sustainable industries in the valley, including tourism, viticulture, and food production will be seriously jeopardised by the existence of the mill, as well as the fishing industry in Bass Strait. Far more jobs could be created across Tasmania in the forestry industry by reviving our sawmills and looking at value adding of forest products from existing plantations.
“The problem with the Liberal and Labor governments is that they have no plan B. Their vision is severely limited and they can see no economic alternative but this stinking pulp mill. It is a cargo cult mentality that is restricting Tasmania from moving forward.” she concluded.
• Peter Whish-Wilson: ASIC hasn’t given up on Gay’s proceeds of crime
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLKEHzu0c04
And Crikey: http://www.crikey.com.au/2014/02/26/will-asic-try-again-on-gays-gunns-insider-trading-proceeds/
• Estelle at The Tailrace:
At the Tailrace Meeting on February 27th held to discuss the economics of Gunns’ pulp mill proposal, following a talk by Geoffrey Cousins, Peg Putt informed the crowd that a meeting which she attended in Holland a few months ago, organised by the Environmental Paper Network, brought together many different worldwide environmental organisations to discuss the topic of stopping irresponsible investment in pulp and paper mills.
Many at that meeting were dismayed at the revival of the Gunns’ Pulp Mill project. Some, including Indonesian and Siberian representatives who are battling malfeasance in their own countries were shocked that laws had been passed here to nullify a court case designed to question the validity of the pulp mill permits.
At the end of the Tailrace meeting a motion was proposed and accepted by all at the meeting (apart from one abstention)
• This meeting does not support the Tamar Valley pulp mill project because of its many unacceptable environmental impacts and the process by which our community was excluded from involvement in the assessment and approval.
• Critical non-compliance of the project with formal assessment requirements lead to that process being dispensed with in 2007 and a legislated “fast track” approval that also removed our rights was substituted.
• We also strongly oppose the most recent legislative intervention in Tasmania which in January 2014 lengthens the life of the pulp mill permit, alleviated repercussions for failure to observe environmental conditions under the permit and prevented the court case regarding the validity of the permit from proceeding.
• Further the proposed pulp mill jeopardises other business and industry reliant on a clean unpolluted environment thus hazarding existing and future employment and wealth creation in Tasmania.
