The Australian Financial Review reports that it is thought United States timber investment management organisation Global Forest Partners is the preferred bidder for the failed group's timber assets, valued at more than $300 million.

Timber group Gunns was told on Friday it had missed out on the 97,000 hectares of premium eucalyptus and nearly 39,000 ha of freeehold land and leasehold interest in 58,700 ha in the so-called Green Triangle, which could have helped feed its proposed $2 billion Tasmanian pulp mill.

GFP is unlikely to be a permanent fixture in the region as it is regarded more as a trading house, a source says.