shifty foreign bussiness

Green MP baffled over Ta Ann�s massive losses
FMT Staff | September 7, 2011 An Australian MP is in disbelief over timber company Ta Ann Holding's losses in Tasmania.
KUCHING: Sarawak�s Ta Ann Holdings, the world�s biggest hardwood timber company in terms of market capitalisation, and which is closely linked to Chief Minister Taib Mahmud, has declared losses in its Tasmanian venture.

The disclosure has come as a rude shock to Tasmanian parliamentarian Senator Bob Brown who heads Australia�s Green Party.

According to him, the recorded losses are next to an impossible feat considering that Ta Ann had managed to secure �A$10 million in direct public subsidies� and perks.

�Since it began operation in Tasmania, Ta Ann has made a net loss of about A$18 million, despite receiving A$10 million in direct public subsidies and being housed in premises which cost Forestry Tasmania A$22 million and which it runs at a loss.

�When public money is poured into poor business models in forestry, we have less to spend on our hospitals, schools and national parks,� he said in a statement.

His party has also demanded to know how a �powerful lobby� had managed to extract such subsidies for Ta Ann and gain the company access to the state.

Brown�s terse statement underpins Tasmanians� deep concern over Ta Ann�s indiscriminate logging of their native forests.

According to a posting in Sarawak Report, an August poll conducted by the Green Party had revealed that some 88% of those surveyed wanted logging in the 570,000 hectares of Tasmania�s native forests stopped.

The posting also noted that in recent months Tasmanians have staged protests against Ta Ann�s logging activities and the commercial group�s strong link to Taib, who allegedly amassed an unexplainable amount of wealth by stripping Sarawak�s rainforests and disenfranchising indigenous native communities.

Ta Ann is one among major logging groups linked to the Taib family of cronies. The other is Samling, the giant logging company owned by the timber tycoon Yaw Teck Seng.