Departed Quintis founder Frank Wilson and his advisor, Goldman Sachs, will meet with a prospective partner on Friday understood to be the Abu Dhabi Investment Council.
Wilson is following through on his promise to take back the company after his sensational resignation in the wake of a savage attack at the hands of short sellers. Wilson is a substantial shareholder of the former TFS in his own right and the appointment of Goldman last week lends credibility to his cause.
Friday's meeting in Perth won't be the first time Wilson and the investment arm of the Abu Dhabi government cross paths. The institution is an investor in Quintis managed sandalwood plantations, thought to be the Middle Eastern sovereign wealth fund that was a key backer around 2010.
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Other partners that have been linked to Wilson's comeback bid include private equity giant KKR. Quintis owns and manages Indian sandalwood plantations up near Kununurra in Western Australia and, as luck would have it, so too does KKR via its controlling stake in Santonol Group.
Then there's Lindsay Goldberg, a New York-based private equity firm which made a withdrawn conditional cash offer of $0.85 a share in 2012.