Timber group Auspine and IOOF Australia Trustees have reached a settlement in their
year-long legal dispute over a South Australian forestry investment scheme.
Timber group Auspine and IOOF Australia Trustees have reached a settlement in their
year-long legal dispute over a South Australian forestry investment scheme.
The agreement, which follows legal action in the South Australian Supreme Court, the Federal Court and the High Court, sets out the terms upon which the scheme will op-erate until it is wound up in about 15 years.
IOOF – acting for about 25,000 covenant holders in the Sapfor scheme which dates back to the 1920s – had claimed up to $40 million in damages over the management and harvesting of timber plantations by Auspine and associated companies.
Under the settlement, Auspine will pay $12 million in the nature of timber proceeds in 27 instalments, concluding in 2005.
The parties have also agreed to set prices for logs sold under the investment scheme and for the annual maintenance of the plantations.
Auspine chairman Geoffrey Hill, whose company has racked up a legal bill of about $4 million during the dispute, says Auspine is satisfied with the outcome.
