Quintis investor holds off plantation sale

An investor has chosen not to sell a parcel of plantations to troubled sandalwood producer Quintis, with the first deadline to exercise the option having expired.

Asia Pacific Investments has held a put option to sell 400 hectares of plantations to Quintis for a pre-determined price of about $34 million.

Revisions to the put option were agreed by the two parties in May, with Quintis subsequently extending the offer’s first window of acceptance on multiple occasions.

An acceptance window between August 9 and August 11 was passed last week, with Quintis saying in a statement this morning that the option hadn’t been exercised.

“API retains a further put option which may be exercised between December 11 and December 15,” it said.

“It the option is exercised, settlement would occur at the end of December.”

If the put option is exercised by the investor in December, then it will incur a nominal 6.25 per cent increase (annualised rate of 15 per cent), as per renegotiations between the two parties in May.

Quintis shares have been suspended from trade since May, with the company negotiating transactions that it has previously said are critical to its solvency.