The receivers of Great Southern have today made public its preference for timber company Gunns to assume responsibility for most of the collapsed company's plantation schemes.
The receivers of Great Southern have today made public its preference for timber company Gunns to assume responsibility for most of the collapsed company's plantation schemes.
In an annoucement out late this afternoon, Gunns said it had signed an implentation agreement with receivers McGrathNicol in relation to a proposal to replace Great Southern Managers Australia Ltd as the responsible entity for the schemes.
The proposal will be put before investors on December 23. Investors also have two other proposals from WA businesses Pulpwood Plantations and Black Tree to consider.
Gunns also released details of its proposal which would see the timber company receive a percentage, ranging from 4.5 per cent to 55 per cent, of the 1998 to 2006 pulpwood schemes' net harvest proceeds when the timber is harvested.
The increased charges enable Gunns to meet the expenditure required to properly manage the plantations through to harvest, the company said.
Gunns has also proposed to reduce the rental on some freehold land hosting some of the schemes in return for termination of any potential option to extend the leases to include a second rotation.
In addition Gunns has also proposed to acquire certain forestry assets of the Great Southern group, including property, plant and equipment and water licences, for $8.7 million.
The timber company will also make an offer of employment to the forestry managed personnel of the schemes.
Debt-laden Great Southern went into administration on May 16. McGrathNicol was appointed receiver on May 18.
Yesterday, at a second meeting of creditors convened by administrator Ferrier Hodgson, creditors voted in favour of 27 of the 35 companies in the Great Southern group being placed in liquidation.
The vote on the future of the remaining eight companies was adjourned until December 3.
Administrator Martin Jones of Ferrier Hodgson said that as liquidator he would have expanded powers of investigation into Great Southern.
"The move to liquidation is a direct result of there being no realistic alternative solution in the form of a deed of company arrangement," he said.
"The receiver and managers, who represent the interests of the banks, will continue to manage the day-to-day operations of the Great Southern companies."
At the time the administrator was appointed, the Great Southern group comprised a parent company and 34 subsidiaries and employed more than 400 people nationally.
The group had raised more than $2.2 billion in MIS sales and managed MIS assets for more than 52,000 investors who are also referred to as growers.
The administrator said in a report this week that the decline of Great Southern was linked to a big fall in annual MIS sales resulting from a range of regulatory and economic factors.