The thinking is, that thousands of investors in the forestry managed investment schemes formerly promoted and managed by Gunns will have either written off or forgotten about their holding by now, after rivals like Great Southern and Timbercorp collapsed during the financial crisis. Unlike those companies, Gunns has run its plantations properly and the MIS investors - who own most of the timber - would be pleasantly surprised to get a cheque, and disinclined to quibble over price. Remember, many of these investors would have been seeking (and would have received) an up-front tax deduction and would not have expected much in the way of long-term return. The MIS investors are an obstacle to any dealing in the land, which Gunns owns, but if they can be bought out then the plantations can be more easily sold - perhaps to a pension fund or institutional investor specialising in forestry. Such a sale could raise hundreds of millions of dollars, either for shareholders or to part-fund the mill project.