Sandalwood producer Quintis has been placed on the market after receivers were appointed to the business this week, with the sale to include its operations and facilities across Australia.
Sandalwood producer Quintis has been placed on the market after receivers were appointed to the business this week, with the sale to include its operations and facilities across Australia.
Earlier this week, Daniel Woodhouse, Hayden White and John Park of FTI Consulting were appointed as receivers and managers of Quintis (Australia) Pty Ltd and its subsidiaries Sandalwood Properties, Quintis Forestry, Arwon Finance, Quintis Leasing, Fieldpark, Mt Romance Holdings, Quintis Sandalwood, and skin-care brand About Time We Met.
FTI Consulting today announced it has placed Quintis on the market, with the sale to include 7,800 hectares of established plantations and three million sandalwood trees.
The company owns 4,000 hectares of plantations and manages the rest for various clients, according to FTI.
However, Quintis claimed its sandalwood plantation estate covers 12,000 hectares of land and comprises 5.5 million sandalwood trees on its website.
Business News understands FTI did not include Quintis' assets that were under managed investment schemes in its announced figure of 7,800 hectares of plantations and three million trees.
Quintis Group previously funded and developed its sandalwood projects through managed investment schemes, of which there were 11.
Sandalwood Properties Ltd, a subsidiary of Quintis (Australia) is the responsible entity for the schemes and has moved to wind them up after a KPMG review found the schemes were not financially viable.
Quintis owns and operates sandalwood plantations across northern Australia, a small plantation in Burdekin in Queensland, and facilities in Western Australia.
FTI Consulting announced the sale would include the Kununurra wood processing facility and the oil distillation facility in Albany.
The Kununurra facility processes the wood from harvested plantations and produce heartwood logs, chips and powder while the 60,000 square metre Albany facility distills sandalwood oil with a capacity to process 2,000 tonnes of Indian sandalwood heartwood a year.
Mr Woodhouse said the combination of scale, vertically integrated operations, and entrenched product demand would be attractive to some buyers.
“The sale provides the perfect opportunity to purchase a sustainable, vertically integrated, Indian sandalwood operation with unsurpassed scale,” he said.
“The planned harvest profile indicates the plantations will become income generating for the next eight to 10 years.
“As the establishment costs have already been incurred, a potential buyer can benefit from the considerable investment already undertaken to establish the plantations, while also generating harvest management income.”
The expressions of interest period will end on April 17.
On Tuesday, the receivers confirmed they were in control of the majority of Quintis' businesses, operations and assets.
Other Quintis subsidiaries Santalis Healthcare Corporation, Quintis Trading (Xiamen) Co, and Quintis Products are not in receivership.
The FTI Consulting receivers also confirmed they would urgently call for expressions of interest in the sale or a recapitalisation of the business.
In 2018, US-based investor BlackRock took control of Quintis and its Australian subsidiaries in a $145 million recapitalisation deal.
It is understood BlackRock called for the receivership, being Quintis' majority shareholder.
