Vast Indian sandalwood plantations are on the market across northern Australia after receivers took quick action after Quintis' latest financial collapse.
Quintis operates the world's largest sandalwood estate with 7800 hectares (19,274 acres) of established plantations and three million sandalwood trees.
After going into receivership earlier this week - for the second time - Quintis is now officially up for sale.
The company owns large plantations and real estate in the Northern Territory and the Kimberley with a listed business headquarters in Perth.
It also has an operations centre in Kununurra, a smaller plantation and land in Queensland, and the Mt Romance oil distillation facility and shop near Albany, WA.
The company owns 4000ha of plantations in its own right, and manages the remainder of the estate for various clients.
The sandalwood plantations are located across northern Australia, from the Ord River Irrigation area in WA through to the Douglas Daly and Katherine in the NT with a small plantation in the Burdekin in Queensland.
The sale also includes the Kununurra Wood Processing Facility, which processes the wood from harvested plantations to produce pure heartwood logs, chips and powder, and the Albany Oil Distillation Facility, a 60,000 m2 steam distillation facility which is the world's largest oil distiller of sandalwood oil, with the capacity to process 2000 tonnes of Indian sandalwood heartwood annually.
FTI Consulting senior managing director Daniel Woodhouse said the combination of scale; vertically integrated operations; and entrenched product demand should prove attractive to some buyers.
"The sale provides the perfect opportunity to purchase a sustainable, vertically integrated, Indian sandalwood operation with unsurpassed scale," Mr Woodhouse said.
"The planned harvest profile indicates the plantations will become income generating for the next 8-10 years," he said.
"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."
Expressions of Interest close on April 17 and can be registered with quintis@fticonsulting.com
The sandalwood empire was founded with the financial support of thousands of mum and dad investors as a managed investment scheme.
The same company was recapitalised after falling into financial trouble back in 2018.
Earlier this week, the receivership firm said it was "currently working closely with key stakeholders to quickly conduct an independent assessment of the financial position of the entities that are the subject of their appointment and their ongoing and future viability".
FTI Consulting says Quintis has worked collaboratively with them.
Quintis said the climate in northern Australia replicated the ideal growing conditions experienced in India.
Quintis has spent two decades buying land and growing, then harvesting, Indian sandalwood to become the world's largest supplier of the fragrant product.
It planted its first plantations in 1999 from India-sourced seeds and its first harvest was in 2014.
Quintis has already been selling off some land.
Ron Greentree, once Australia's largest private grower of wheat and a former Grain Growers Association chairman, bought some land off Quintis last year in the Kununurra.
Mr Greentree's Keep Farming has other land interests in the Ord irrigation area and is pursuing the expansion of cotton growing.
Back in 2017, Quintis was also in receivership and was successfully recapitalised.
It is believed between $125-$175 million of new cash was injected into the business to fund operations on a long-term basis with American investment company BlackRock involved.
Since that time the price of the timber product has fallen by about half.
Chris McLennan
ACM national rural property writer based in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria. Career journalist. Multi award winner.
ACM national rural property writer based in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria. Career journalist. Multi award winner.
