May 18, 2010The State Government has made further progress with its controversial asset sale plans, following a successful bid for its timber business Forestry Plantations Queensland (FPQ).
Treasurer Andrew Fraser today announced FPQ will be sold for $603 million to Hancock Queensland Plantations, a subsidiary of a US-based timber company.
"By reaching agreement on a price of $603 million, this exceeds original expectations and is great news for Queensland taxpayers,” Fraser says.
"This is the first of the five commercial businesses to be sold, licensed or leased to the private sector, as the Government reforms the state balance sheet and builds a stronger Queensland economy," he says.
Fraser says Hancock Queensland Plantations, a company managed by Hancock Timber Resource Group on behalf of institutional investors, has won the right to grow and harvest the trees.
The Crown plantation land on which the majority of the business sits will remain in Government-ownership.
The sale includes around 35,000 hectares of freehold land, which is about 10 percent of the total estate.
Hancock Timber Resource Group manages more than two million hectares of timberlands worth approximately $8.5 billion (US) across the United States, Brazil, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.
Today’s sale marks a major milestone in the Government's economic reform agenda.
Other Queensland assets up for sale include: the Port of Brisbane (to be finalised by the end of the year); the Abbot Point Coal Terminal (lease process to start in last quarter of 2010) and Queensland Motorways, which remains on track to be completed by the end of 2011.
