g l'e has destroyed this company

Greg L'estarnge's epiphany to cave into the greens has destroyed this company IMO.

He has closed or sold profitable parts of the business at a loss and before doing a deal with the greens. It was stupidity to get out of hardwood logging without having compensation locked in.

Gunns should have looked at relocating the pulp mill to Burnie, where there was a lot of support compared to the opposition at the Tamar Valley. If Greg knew Tasmanian politics he would have done this as soon as he commenced his tenure.

MIS schemes should have continued. True, they would not have sold to the same extent, but there were enough followers to keep it going. Foolishly, I was one of these, buying a couple of hectares per year. Gunns advantage was that they had some land they owned, which was being used and 2R sites were starting to become available.

Finally, to spend $250m on a pulp mill when you did not have funding and partners in place was lunacy. Expenditure should have been cut back much earlier.

Gunns sawmills should have been rationalized a lot earlier. Keeping these antiquated sawmills going when there was a clear case for rationalization proved disastrous. Tassie is only a small place and may be 1 - 3 sawmills would have been more appropriate.

Finally, selling some assets at stupidly low prices (Portland excepted)was also stupid. $28m for the largest hardwood sawmill in Australia is regarded as a joke in the timber industry ( and forget about the stock argument by Gregg77). Assets were being sold for what ever they could get for them, regardless of underlying value.

Now the plantations have been revalued, no doubt these are valued at a ridiculously low price, so when Gunns collapses, top ranking debt holders can pick these assets up at negligible value with all subordinated debt and shareholders not receiving a dime.

The leading banks have now set themselves up to maximise their return and insure no-one else gets anything. The likelihood of Gunns surviving is now zero. Well done Greg. You should be hanging your head in shame.
PT