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Mr. Baker, there were a number of potential buyers for the Timber
Property, including both timber products companies and pension
funds, and he expected that it would sell within a few weeks
after being placed on the market. A 98-percent shareholder in
Johnco could also partially liquidate Johnco by selling timber or
cutting rights, while retaining a fee in the land, inasmuch as a
great portion of Johnco's fair market value was attributable to
the value of the timber itself. Thus, Johnco, at least to the
extent of its timberland, was marketable.
Not all of Johnco's nontimber assets were marketable,
however. While cash and marketable securities certainly were
marketable, Johnco's building and equipment were not, inasmuch as
they were specialized assets that were not easily transported,
and for which no established market existed. Finally, we think
that the Harris County Real Estate owned by Johnco was
marketable. That property's location within Tanglewood, a
desirable residential area in suburban Houston, suggests that it
could have been sold at its fair market value within a reasonable
time, as one of petitioner's experts, Mr. Buck, confirmed.
Petitioner offers no expert opinion in support of a 10-
percent discount for lack of marketability. Respondent's expert
calculated that approximately 6 percent of Johnco's assets lacked
marketability and therefore concluded that the ceiling on any
discount for lack of marketability should be 6 percent. In
reaching that figure, however, respondent's expert treated the
Harris County Real Estate as lacking marketability, a conclusion
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