Login
Minters, DLA Piper share Woodchipper deal
Minter Ellison and DLA Piper have worked as legal advisers as Woodchipper Gunns sells its Portland woodchip export plant for $61.8m to Australian Bluegum Plantations.
The New Lawyer
Minter Ellison and DLA Piper have worked as legal advisers as Woodchipper Gunns Ltd sells its Portland, Victoria woodchip export plant for $61.8 million to Australian Bluegum Plantations.
To continue reading the rest of this article, please log in.
Create free account to get unlimited news articles and more!
Global Forest Partners, a US company, owns Australian Bluegum through its Cayman Islands-based AIF Properties.
Minter Ellison advised long-standing client Global Forest Partners on the deal. Minters’ team included corporate partners Callen O'Brien and Martin Bennett, special counsel Andrew Wright, and corporate lawyer Daniel Malouf.
DLA Piper partners Carrie Follas and Michael Reed advised Gunns Limited.
Global Forest Partners grew its Australian forestry assets and related facilities this week, announcing the agreement to acquire Gunns Limited's woodchip export facility, as well as completing the acquisition of Elders' pulpwood assets in Albany, Bunbury and the Green Triangle.
Both acquisitions were made through Australian Bluegum Plantations Pty Limited.
The Port of Portland transaction, which is subject to customary conditions including regulatory approvals, provides a tolling arrangement for future access by Gunns to the woodchip export facility for the sale of forest products from the Green Triangle in Victoria and South Australia that are under Gunns' management, Minter Ellison said in a statement.
Under the deal with Elders, ABP acquired 12,400 hectares of freehold land in Albany, Bunbury and the Green Triangle; the Albany woodchip export facility owned and operated by Pulpwood Plantations Terminals Pty Ltd; and Elders owned standing timber in Albany, Bunbury and the Green Triangle.
US giant Global Forest Partners is a leader in global timberland investments and is one of the biggest plantation managers in Australia. In 2009 it acquired the assets of the collapsed Timbercorp group of companies, including 92,000 ha. of eucalyptus plantations (approximately 100 million trees).
