Hamilton ups ante on WA Sandalwood MISs
The contest for control of Western Australian sandalwood agricultural managed investment schemes currently managed by Elders is heating up, with publicly-listed distressed debt and equities specialist Hamilton Securities claiming the in-principle agreement of one of the world ‘s largest Sandalwood producers to manage and harvest the plantations.
Hamilton announced on Friday it had the in-principle agreement of TFS Corporation as part of its development of an alternative proposal to one being proffered to growers by Elders to sell its Sandalwood assets in the Ord River region to Sanatol.
In doing so, Hamilton executive director Giles Craig said he believed Elders needed to be fully transparent ahead of a 14 March vote in Melbourne to sell the plantation assets and identify who were the foreign backers of Santanol.
He claimed the sales process was causing a lot of heartache for growers who viewed it as "a free grab by Elders and an unjustifiable attempt to offload a key asset at firesale prices".
"These are very important issues, given that growers have no assurances that Santanol's backers can execute the transaction if they vote to accept the conditional offer next week," Craig said.
He said Hamilton Securities was continuing to develop an alternative proposal for growers and confirmed it had reached an in-principle agreement with TFS Corporation to manage and harvest the sandalwood plantations.
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