Willmott Forests Ltd
(ASX:WFL) has gone into receivership, collapsing under the weight of around $120 million debt.
The timber investment company Willmott yesterday advised that the company’s financiers, Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX:CBA) and St George Bank, had appointed Mark Mentha and Bryan Webster of Korda Mentha.
Mr Webster says it became clear that forestry managed investment scheme’s had collapsed after the failure of Environinvest, Timbercorp, Great Southern, FEA Group and the Rewards Group.
The move follows the business’s plan to repay debt through the sale of land assets.
Korda Mentha advises that Willmott had raised around $400 million from 8,000 investors and currently manages over 50,000 hectares of pine and oak plantations.
Adding, Willmott Forests relied on future MIS sales for cash-flow and experienced a decline in new MIS receipts from $66.5 million in 2008-09, to just $1.5 million in 2009-10.
Willmott Forests reported a profit of $14.74 million for the year to 30 June 2009.
