25 Apr 2014

New Forests Buys Gunns Plantations - The Foreign Takover Of Tasmania

New Forests David Brand
ECONOMIC COLONIALISM.
New Forests, front office for British and Canadian pension funds has bought Gunns Tasmanian tree plantations from New York-based Anchorage Capital for $330 million. Liquidator KordaMentha acted as middleman in the transnational deal. The foreign pension funds must be laughing all the way to the bank after buying yet more tree plantations built with money diverted away from Australian hospitals and roads. Oh well, the Aussies are too pissed and lazy to notice their land disappearing from beneath their feet. The Australian Foreign Investment Revue Board was probably bypassed, so desperate is Australia to prop-up it's fading illusion of prosperity. The jury has gone out and returned with the verdict - 'Australians are too dumb to manage their own country'. A bit player in this foreign takeover of Australian farmland is FSC Australia. They kept Gunns 'controlled wood' permit warehoused for 2 years waiting for one of their cashed-up members to buy the operation. FSC knew Gunns had not managed the plantations for years, but their first responsibility is to the international fund managers and banks who now control huge areas of Australia.
Canadian David Brand's New Forests previously used funds from the Alberta Investment Corp (AimCo) to buy collapsed Aussie MIS companies. These Aussie Ponzi schemes avoided paying billions of dollars in tax by legally funding tree plantations. They also ripped-off thousands of Aussie mums and dads. New Forests have deep pockets thanks to secret deals with cashed-up pension funds. Buying cheap assets paid for by dumb Australian taxpayers is just what the transnational fund managers were looking for. Pity Australians were the last to notice their country is now controlled by foreigners.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Publish and be dammed - but at least publish facts, not crap. Anchorage Capital bought the Gunns debt from the banks (mostly the ANZ) which sold for 40-45 cents in the dollar. They'll get about 70% of the proceeds of sale. FIRB was not by-passed: there is legal obligation to treat with FIRB if applicable. Given the prevailing thresholds, FIRB would have to be involved. Foreign owners don't take the land anywhere - unlike miners. Less than 10% of Australian farmland is foreign owned. FSC didn't warehouse the Gunns certification: the Receiver is the continuing legal entity and providing the standards were met there would be no reason to drop certification. MIS schemes are not Ponzi schemes. One is legal, the other is not. No tax was avoided by MIS operators: all the tax was "saved" by investors who actively chose to spend their money on these projects. Several of these are continuing projects - offering employment in places like...Tasmania. The Mendicant State.

Anonymous said...

Thanks to comment 1 for confirming our research that New Forests funds are sourced from tax havens. If MIS schemes are not 'Ponzi schemes' then where does income to pay rent, bills etc come from over the 15 year life span of a tree plantation? How much income would the same land generate with dairy or any other food crop or livestock on it over a 12 to 15 year tree rotation? There is no employment in tree farms for at least a DECADE which is while you desktop loggers have to use collapsed economies like Tasmania.