TIM, page-2

re: TIM - senis Thanks senis,

as you would know I am generally bullish on the entire listed eucalypt plantation sector with a specific proviso that this is because the Federal Government enacted specific legislation that ensured the 100% tax deductibility of investments in bluegums (and bluegums alone) and this same legislation also gave a one year window for the managers to actually plant the treelots after the end of the financial year. This further point was important in allowing the plantation managers to plant trees at the most suitable time from a silvacultural point of view and not just when it best suited the ATO.

Re your list of brokers recommending TIM, just a small point...I cannot verify your list nor will I try other than to note that Commsec do not to my knowledge have TIM as a recommended buy and in any event Comsec's info is provided by a third party analyst being Aspect Financials.

Aspect currently provides the following current chart of broker recommendations in regard to TIM which appears to have been updated on the 6th Nov 2002 -



The only other report I have currently recieved recommending TIM is from Shaw dated 9th September 2002 and is a technically based recommendation based on a likely chart movement.

If you know where I might find these other recommendations could you please post the links as I know there are quite a few other HC members who are actively invested in this sector. TIA!

Re TIM's non-eucalypt horticultural operations and the effect of the drought, if you have spoken to TIM's management and they say there is no effect then you will have to take their word for it.

Personally I have chosen to sell TIM on the current spike and ride it out ahead of further rainfall developments which I may obviously regret if the price spikes further but I have elected to take this cautious approach from a commonsense point of view (which is the advantage of holding the stock rather than the hort units in the current climate I guess.

As far as I am aware none of the plantation companies seem to be having any problems with rainfall in their bluegum plantation regions. Even were that to occur I am led to believe that this would merely result in a lengthening of the time to maturity given the gums ability to cope with dry conditions.

I note that Commsec have also had a huge purge in the last month of company securities eligible for their Margin Lending and that TIM and GTP were both amongst a huge range of other companies removed from the lists.

GNS remains.

Cheers,