Citic rules out forest buy

By CHRIS DANIELS

Citic says it is not the mystery suitor waiting to buy the Central North Island forest, should Fletcher Forests fail.

Fletcher and Citic ran the huge forest as a joint venture before it went into receivership early last year.

Fletcher, which is still managing the forest, announced last month that it had won the right to put in a final offer for the forest. It has four weeks left to stitch together the necessary financing for the deal and to get shareholder approval to buy the forest.

This week, receiver Michael Stiassny announced the presence of a "back-up deal" with an anonymous party to buy the forest, and Citic Forests New Zealand manager Sun Xinguo confirmed that Citic had discussed the asset with the receiver.

But it was not involved in any agreement.

Possible buyers include US forestry investor Hancock and Carter Holt Harvey.