STATE Treasurer Jack Snelling has met with a Victorian private plantation management company that is emerging as one of the possible contenders in the multi-million-dollar forward sale of the region’s plantation estate.
Mr Snelling met on May 18 with representatives from Hancock Victoria Plantations (HVP), which is part of a global timber resource management group.
According to Mr Snelling’s office, Hancock is the only potential buyer he has met with to date.
“It was best described as a preliminary meeting and it would be more than likely that he would meet with any other interested parties down the track, but Hancocks was the first one,” a spokesperson said.
Mr Snelling — who attended yesterday’s first roundtable forestry meeting in Adelaide with key South East stakeholders — announced last month that the government planned to move ahead with the forward sale, despite widespread outcry.
HVP — which has a regional office in Mount Gambier and owns some softwood plantations in the South East — is one of Australia’s largest privately-owned plantation timber companies and is owned jointly by Australian and US superannuation and investment funds.
The Hancock Timber Resource Group also purchased 204,000ha of Queensland Government-owned plantations last year for $603m under a 99-year lease.
While the government has not revealed the reserve sale price for South Australia’s sprawling plantation estate, the price is reportedly between $500-$700m.
No comment was available from Hancock on the issue.
According to a local timber industry expert, Hancock could be interested in the historic deal after buying the rights of Victoria’s plantation estate in 1996 for 99 years.
“They could be well-positioned to make an offer,” said an industry insider, who did not want to be named.
They said Hancock had a track record in managing plantation estates in Victoria.
Meanwhile, another forestry expert — who also did not want to be named — said Hancock had done an “excellent job” in managing plantations in Victoria.
“They could be interested, but it is not confirmed,” the industry person said.
According to the company’s website, HVP manages around 245,000 hectares of land across Victoria, including 50,000 hectares of native vegetation for conservation.
“HVP annually supplies some three million tonnes of softwood (pine) and 300,000 tonnes of hardwood (eucalypt) to sawmillers, panel producers and pulp and paper mills in Australia and overseas,” the website said.
“Each year, HVP plantation timber is replacing half a billion dollars of potential forest product imports into Australia, supporting local investment and employment.”
The company supplies around 1.5 million tonnes a year of sawlogs and pulpwood to sawmills in Victoria’s Gippsland region, including Australian Paper’s Maryvale pulp and paper mill.
Through a joint venture business, Softwood Plantation Exporters (SPE) in Geelong, which processes plantation pine thinnings and sawmill residues for export, HVP also contributes to Australia’s export performance in expanding overseas markets
According to the company’s website, it also has an extensive firefighting commitment to the sector.
HVP fire crews are part of the Victorian Country Fire Authority, registered as CFA Forest Industry Brigades.
“As active members of the CFA, our fire crews are trained in wildfire control and work alongside other CFA volunteers on the fire frontline,” the company’s website said.
The company’s firefighting effort includes 235 trained firefighters, 40 support staff, 18 fire tankers, 32 smaller fire fighting appliances, 28 bulldozers available, six graders available, four fire towers, one aerial fire surveillance plane and two first attack helicopters.
Hancock Timber Resource Group is a global timberland investment management organisation based in Boston, Massachusetts, that manages more than two million hectares of timberland in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Brazil and the United States.
Source: http://www.borderwatch.com.au/archives/9278