The Macquarie Group has struck a deal with BRI Ferrier offering to manage hundreds of millions of dollars worth of forestry assets nationally for the new owners of Forest Enterprises Australia. Source: The Australian
A marketing campaign for FEA’s 97,900 hectares of hardwood forests and 46,000ha of land across Australia was launched by receiver Deloitte through investment bank Gresham, with expectations that the properties could sell for between $200 million and $400m.
However, it emerged that Macquarie Group had agreed to take over the daily operation of the forests on behalf of the growers, should that be the new owners preference.
Macquarie, subject to conditions, would pay a rental stream for the land, return the proceeds to the growers when the trees were ready for harvest, while deducting a management fee for their services.
Any potential buyer of the assets has the option of purchasing just the land and receiving rent from Macquarie as an operator or buying both the property and the business.
It came after BRI Ferrier principal Brian Silvia secured a deal for growers under the forest’s Managed Investment Schemes from 1994 to 2009, where they will share the proceeds of the sale with the financiers, the ANZ Bank and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
The business was placed in voluntary administration on April 14, 2010 and BRI Ferrier was appointed deed administrator on behalf of growers who collectively contributed $470m.
Tim Norman and Sal Algeri of Deloitte were later appointed as receivers, with at least $200m owed to its financiers, ANZ and and Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
