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1. For media stories from previous months, click on the highlighted month below. To read a media story in full, click on the highlighted red link.
- August 08
- July 08
- June 08
- May 08
- April 08
- March 08
- February 08
- January 08
- December 07
- November 07
- October 07
- September 07
- August 07
- July 07 and before
2. Collated media releases from TAP
Media reports for September 08
8 September The Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett has given Gunns another three months (5 January 2009) to finalise Commonwealth planning approvals. ABC
5 September Gunns' shares dropped more than 16 per cent when trading resumed on September 4, stunning market watchers and casting doubt on the company's capital raising program. At a closing price of $1.40, the market capitalisation is $967 million. John Gay said he was pleased with the capital raising which indicates "strong support for the board's long-term strategic direction". The Mercury
5 September Gunns has officially sought an extension of a couple of months to the Federal Government's October 4 deadline for Commonwealth approval of permits for the $2 billion pulp mill. The Examiner
4 September Gunns shares plunged 16% after a capital raising and admitted the future of its proposed $2 billion Tasmanian pulp mill was in doubt. There is no guarantee that any of the additional $91 million retail offering will be raised. Geoffrey Cousins says that if Gunns already has problems raising $400 million it will struggle to raise two billion dollars for the planned pulp mill. The Age
4 September Gunns directors say they had yet to decide on the extent to which they will take up the share rights issue. Business Spectator
4 September Contractors are being exploited by a forestry industry that had institutionalised over-capacity. A new study says individual contractors are continually kept hungry for more volume. Harvesting costs had risen way ahead of income. North-East contractors are being transferred from Forestry Tasmania control to Gunns. The Mercury
3 September Senator Christine Milne called once again for the release of the Herzfeld Report into the proposed Gunns Pulp Mill's likely pollution impacts and the need for tertiary treatment of its waste. "I am told that the report identifies over 160 chemicals of interest in the proposed Pulp Mill's effluent, including phytotoxins and dioxins." Tertiary treatment could add a further $50-500 million cost. The Greens
3 September The Financial Review reports that Gunns was now talking to Asian businesses that were short of fibre and resources, like Asia Pacific Resources International Holdings and Asia Pulp & Paper. Business Spectator
2 September Repairing Gunns' balance sheet is one thing. Whether there is enough goodwill among investors to support John Gay on the expansion trail once again - via a pulp mill three times the size of Gunns' market value and requiring the injection of even more equity at some point - is entirely another. The Age
2 September Premier Bartlett outflanked by Gunns on his promise to tear up a sovereign risk agreement for the mill on November 30. The fine print of the sovereign risk agreement may prevent its termination until well into next year. The Tasmanian Government was last night unable to clarify the situation. Gunns declined to comment. The Australian
2 September The Wilderness Society said Premier David Bartlett should instruct Forestry Tasmania to renegotiate a pulpwood supply agreement for Gunns pulp mill using solely plantation forests. The Examiner
1 September The State Government continued to downplay Premier Bartlett's comments that there would have to be "good commercial reasons" for Forestry Tasmania to extend the wood supply agreement for the mill beyond November 30. Also, the Wilderness Society found discrepancies in Gunns' claims to the stock exchange that its mill would be entirely plantation-based. The wood supply agreement shows one million tonnes having to come from old-growth say TWS. The Mercury
