Mercer International has announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the Santanol Group, which owns and leases approximately 2500 hectares of existing Indian sandalwood plantations and a processing and extraction plant in North West Australia. Source: Timberbiz
The proposed acquisition will expand the company’s operations to include plantation harvesting and the production of solid wood chemical extractives. Santanol owns around 550,000 sandalwood trees in Queensland and Western Australia, and an oil distillation and refining facility in Perth. It is the world’s second largest producer of Indian sandalwood.
It is believed that the sale has received approval from Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board.
Indian sandalwood is a highly-prized species and its harvested wood is sold for religious and decorative uses in Asia.
In addition, oil is extracted from the wood and processed and sold by Santanol for several uses, including fragrances and cosmetics.
The proposed acquisition is subject to customary conditions, including, among others, receipt of requisite regulatory approval, and is expected to complete in or about the end of the third quarter of 2018.
Mercer International is a global forest products company with operations in Germany and Canada with consolidated annual production capacity of 1.5 million tonnes of NBSK pulp and 550 million board feet of lumber.
