Forestry Investment Blog

Staying with forestry investment news in Australasia as promised,  Gunns has just  completed the acquisition of ITC Timber for A$88.5 million. This forestry acquisition follows the statement by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission that it did not intend to oppose the acquisition.

Speaking on behalf of Gunns, Wayne Chapman stated  “The acquisition represents a logical combination of two complementary businesses and is expected to deliver significant realisable synergies by the end of year one.” The acquisition of ITC Timber from Elders extends Gunns’ interests in hardwood sawmilling and wood chips in Victoria and Tasmania. The deal includes a 50% stake in Smartfibre, a woodchip export joint venture with Forest Enterprises Australia.

Gunns is one of the largest  forestry investment companies in Australia, and from its website it claims to be “presently growing the equivalent of 460 trees for every person in Tasmania on its plantation estate”.  Gunns’ first plantation was planted in the early 1900’s and now it employs around 2200 employees in their operations in Tasmania, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia.

Forestry Invest is sponsored by Greenwood Management. For more information on investing in Forestry please click here

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 10th, 2009 at 1:42 pm and is filed under Australasia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.