TAP WARNS POTENTIAL PERMIT BUYER - EXPECT TROUBLE.
TAP has warned-off buyers of the corrupt pulp mill permit in a media release on November 7 2013.
Gunns' receivers KordaMentha have flown in Timo Piilonen from Finland to help them unload the pulp mill concept. Timo spent time at Gunns from early 2010 trying to get the mill off the ground. The Examiner claims KordaMentha will bundle the supposed mill site, the expired permits that include pending litigation, and the plantations and ask for expressions of interst. Gunns' liquidators PPB Advisory are offering the plantations along with the KordaMentha-Gunns assets. TAP was told by KordaMentha in June that Gunns also has a patent for sale. Gunns forest manager Simon Cook from Gunns 233B Charles Street Launceston office initially told TAP the patent was for 'tree breeding' but now denies the patent exists. Piilonen is a director of Finnish pulp mill builder UPM. Kordamentha and UPM are hoping for as much government finance as possible to offset the astronomical Australian construction and labour costs. A cost estimate of building a large pulp mill in the Tamar Valley has now exceeded $4 billion AUD including the Gunns assets. Any buyer will be processing the most expensive tree plantations on earth in the most expensive pulp mill on earth with the worlds highest labour costs. And yet the world paper market is in sharp decline with the advent of ereaders and smart phones?
