The
ministerial statement on the future of Forestry Tasmania today was an
announcement of the appointment of a de facto Administrator.
Expressions
of interest are to be invited for some of FT’s assets, mainly the hardwood
plantations, which hopefully will be enough to cover the costs of Administration.
FT
will then almost certainly be wound up.
It
was always going to be this way. The talk about transitioning to other, in this
case, private operators, is simply a restatement of what happens when companies
are wound up.
Minister
Harriss is pretending that selling assets in Administration will save FT from Liquidation.
How
often do Administrators forestall liquidation and manage to return a company to
normal trading without equity injection or a significant compromise with its creditors?
None
spring to mind.
