Auction houses Dominion Group and Great American Group have jointly run two auctions so far, one on Thursday 23 May at Geon’s old Mt Waverley site in Victoria and the other yesterday at its Banksmeadow, Sydney plant.
The Melbourne auction returned around $3.1 million while Sydney grossed $2.4 million, according to Dominion.
[Photos: Behind the scenes at Geon Bankmeadow]
A third auction is scheduled for tomorrow in Brisbane, where the auctioneers expect a return of roughly $1.2 million.
The big ticket items sold so far include six major presses as well as one of a high-spec perfect binding line (see list below).
Terry Fitzpatrick, director of marketing at Dominion, told ProPrint: “We have been very pleased with how it has all gone: in line with and in excess of our initial expectations.”
He added that that local printers and machinery dealers were “ecstatic” about the high prices and the fact much of the capacity would go offshore.
“One of the printers I spoke to was very happy about that. One called me up yesterday from Brisbane – he will be at that auction – and he was very pleased to see that the stuff was going offshore.
“The other thing that has been commented on by a lot of local dealers and brokers, they were very pleased with the prices [for being high].
“They are holding stock at the moment. The last thing they wanted was to see some of this equipment sold at bottom dollar. They were extremely happy to see us get very good prices across the presses, post-press and pre-press equipment because it meant they felt comfortable they could find buyers for the stock they were holding. They were ecstatic.”
Of the six major presses, only the Komori was bought by a local company. The rest were purchased by overseas bidders, including Chinese dealers, according to Dominion.
While it is possible that these dealers could sell the machinery to Australian printers, Fitzpatrick thought this would be very unlikely.
“I would be very surprised if it came back here. There are quite a lot of legislative controls for getting gear into China; I can’t imagine they would go to so much trouble to get it in then get it out again.”
MAJOR EQUIPMENT SOLD
Melbourne
2004 Heidelberg 10-colour SM 102: $315,000
2006 Heidelberg eight-colour SM 102 with coater: $455,000
2007 Komori Lithrone LS529: $400,000
2007 Buhrs BB300 intelligent mailing system: $115,000
Sydney
2001 Heidelberg 12-colour SM 102: $255,000
2005 Heidelberg 10-colour SM 102: $470,000
2002 Heidelberg six-colour CD 74: $370,000
2007 Muller Martini Acoro A7 21-station perfect binder: $385,000
[Related: Ups and downs of Geon]
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This is possibly the best news for everyone in the paper/print sector. It reinforces the case put here http://www.proprint.com.au/Feature/342791,three-point-plan-to-fix-bad-debt.aspx
Getting excess capacity out of Australia will benefit everyone who has invested in the paper/print sector.
Whether these sales mean Australian printers will need to compete with their Chinese counterparts in the future is problematic, and largely currency dependent.
We may be nearing the bottom of the paper/print economic cycle.
Graham Critchley, Convenor
PXUPA Investor Group Supporters (PIGS)
61 (0) 416 171 006
PIGS is a committed group of volunteers formed in early 2012 specifically to protect the rights of PaperlinX hybrid investors – particularly those who cannot speak for themselves.
Our objective is to ensure that every vote counts; and that any outcome for PXUPA holders is fair and equitable.
..very good Graham, read your article with interest,errr…what ‘excess’ are you talking about..?..I could get on my soapbox but I won’t. How about we ‘just’ send every bit of print overseas, close all the printers down & then we can all ‘just’ go on the dole.
So now the liquidators have a fist full of dollars, including the sale of WA and Tasi
who is going to ask the obvios question?
We all know the answer
Yawn, so what…move on please. Proceeds will go nowhere near even satisfying secured creditors…already knew that. Capacity out of the market, but in the overall scheme of things not a huge impact…significant overcapacity will remain. Already knew that.