Gunns

Tasmanian wood pulp company, Gunns Limited (ASX:GNS) has been put under voluntary administration.

• Gunns directors have appointed Ian Carson, Daniel Bryant and Craig Crosbie of PPB as administrators for company.
• The action was instigated by a syndicate of banks led by the ANZ, refusing to continue funding the company and are owed $560 million.
• ANZ and the syndicate have appointed receivers: Mark Korda and Bryan Webster of KordaMentha

Australian woodchipper, Gunns Limited (ASX:GNS) have released a statement to the stock exchange announcing that it will book an impairment of $700 to $800 million for some of its forestry related assets (including: Tasmanian land and plantation estate, its interests in managed investment schemes (MIS) and the development costs associated with the pulp mill project) for the 2011/2012 financial year to end of June.

Another possible funding source has bowed out as ANZ Bank (ASX:ANZ) reconfirmed its decision not to give financing for the $2.5 billion pulp mill that Gunns (ASX:GNS) plans to build at Bell Bay.

"There has been no change in our position since May 2008," said an ANZ spokesman yesterday.

Gunns' (ASX:GNS) asset sale to raise capital for commissioning its Tamar Valley pulp mill has met with positive market reaction. Gunns shares rose 27 percent yesterday, to close at 42 cents. The timber company said it is on track for $40 to $50 million full-year underlying earnings.

St Barbara (SBM), a company that operates in the gold production and mineral exploration industry with main focus on mining and selling of gold, investments, mineral exploration and exploitation in Australia was the best performer of the week in ASX200 with a gain of 25.4 percent closing the week at 37 cents (market capitalisation $722.5 million). The company traded its stocks for 30 cents last week.

Gunns (GNS), a fully integrated hardwood forest products company which is involved in milling, timber processing and merchandising, building and hardware supplies merchandising and so on was the best performer of the week in ASX200 with a gain of 12.7 percent closing the week at 45 cents (market capitalisation $359.0 million). The company traded its stocks for 40 cents last week.

Eastern Star Gas (ESG), a company that concentrates on conventional and coalbed methane gas exploration and production was the best performer of the week in ASX200 with a gain of 22.7 percent closing the week at 87 cents (market capitalisation $754.5 million). The company traded its stocks for 71 cents last week.

Gunns (GNS), a fully integrated hardwood forest products company which concentrates on milling, timber processing and merchandising, building and hardware supplies merchandising and building contractors was the worst performer in the ASX200 list for the week. The company had a market capitalisation of $282.4 million and lost 27.8 percent to its stock price and was closed for the week at 35 cents. Its stocks were traded at 49 cents during the last week.