Gunns shares close down a staggering 24.3% to 26.5cents. The lowest ever?

ABC news reports......"Sydney-based market analyst, Peter Warnes, says four million Gunns shares have been sold, most likely by big institutions.

"I think a lot of people are just fed up with the lack of corporate governance," he said.
Financial analyst Matthew Torenius says this is the lowest Gunns shares (31cents) have been since 1999.
"Much lower and it will be the lowest ever," he said.
"Gunns shares lost almost a quarter of their value today, as nearly five per cent of the company's stocks changed hands.

Shadforths financial analyst Matthew Torenius says it is surprising today's announcement has not boosted the Gunns share price.
"Investors are really spooked," he said.
"We've seen the share price just close down almost 25 per cent today, or 8.5 cents to 26.5 cents.
"Volume today: around 40 million shares traded so that's the heaviest volume in Gunns, in trading in Gunns shares for this year at least."

........from The OZ... Not so great Gunns
IF Gunns Ltd was a start-up company, the analysts wouldn't be looking at it.
Yesterday's $40 million deal with the Lowe's-Woolies-owned hardware outfit Danks & Son is clearly a constructive development for the buyer and particularly for the 283 affected employees but the vendor's market capitalisation is now around the $285m level. Shares in what was once Australia's all-powerful timber giant closed unchanged at 35c yesterday as market watchers mostly changed the subject when the topic of Gunns came up.
It's hardly surprising since the planned $2 billion Tamar River pulp mill is now disappearing over the horizon of the timber group's plans, thanks to the enormous and unfashionable leverage that would now be required to finance it. News from the bunker is sparse and most reports on the company highlight litigation funder IMF's class action, managed by Maurice Blackburn Cashman, alleging Gunns breached its continuous disclosure obligations earlier this year.
Gunns reported a 98.7 per cent profit drop in the half year to December 31, 2009, and the class action alleges the company failed to make the market aware of its deteriorating financial position.
To give you an idea of how well the company is travelling, that news in February knocked the share price down by 22 per cent from 88c to what seemed like a low 68c. Now it's just over half that."

.....from Launcestons financial rock god Jarvis Cocker...."When will the silly suggestions that Gunns is a takeover target come to an end? Takeover targets tend to be companies with share prices well below asset value, or those whose value is misunderstood by the market. I wouldn’t have thought either of those applied to Gunns. In the current economic climate, there isn’t likely to be a buyer for Gunns timber assets regardless of price. I suspect Gunns’ liabilities greatly exceed the recoverable value of assets. Shares have just finished the day trading at 26.5 cents, valuing the company at just slightly more than my local fish and chippery.There isn’t any indication a single buyer is taking any interest. No doubt The Examiner will harp on about Gunns being a target, but I don’t know any institution remotely interested in this sort of basket case. The Board deserve to be [!] (or at least reprimanded by the ASX) for their latest lack of disclosure. Whatever happened to protecting the interests of your shareholders by letting the ASX know why the price is plummeting? I’m sure John and Robin know why".

.........from Business Spectator....
...."Elsewhere, an announcement yesterday saw Woolworths further its hardware ambitions and the unravelling of timber group Gunns, with the retail giant (via Danks) paying $40 million for five Gunns retail stores in Tasmania, as well as a timber joinery centre and truss manufacturing plant".