Firms look at Whitehaven bid
Source: Agencies |
March 23, 2011, Wednesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
CHINA'S Yanzhou Coal Mining Co and India's Aditya Birla group are among parties preparing to submit second-round bids for Australian coal miner Whitehaven Coal which is seeking offers of more than US$3.5 billion, sources said yesterday.
Coal miner Peabody Energy Corp was also still looking at Whitehaven, although it was unclear whether it would submit a binding offer, one of the sources familiar with the transaction said.
Whitehaven said in February it had selected a short list of bidders to complete due diligence in a process expected to continue for "a number of months." The sources said yesterday binding bids were due shortly but did not give a specific timetable.
Interested Indian parties, including Aditya, were being encouraged to make a combined bid as part of a consortium, one source said. A second source denied media reports that India's Gujarat NRE Coke was also looking.
Whitehaven did not respond to requests for a comment. Korea Resources Corp said on March 9 that its consortium had pulled out of bidding for Whitehaven.
China's Shenhua Group and China Coal had also taken a look at Whitehaven but Chinese bidders had now been narrowed down to one, said one of the sources.
Aditya Birla, a telecoms-to-cement conglomerate, has thermal coal requirements for group companies Hindalco, India's top aluminum producer, and UltraTech Cement, the country's largest cement producer.
Large Whitehaven shareholder Alpha Natural Resources was not expected to bid after agreeing in January on a US$7.1 billion deal to buy Massey Energy Co.
Sources familiar with the deal have said previously that Whitehaven was seeking bids of at least A$7.50 (US$7.57) per share which would value the target at around A$3.7 billion. Whitehaven shares closed 1.1 percent lower at A$6.61 yesterday.
The sources could not be named since they were not authorized to speak to the media about the matter.
Coal miner Peabody Energy Corp was also still looking at Whitehaven, although it was unclear whether it would submit a binding offer, one of the sources familiar with the transaction said.
Whitehaven said in February it had selected a short list of bidders to complete due diligence in a process expected to continue for "a number of months." The sources said yesterday binding bids were due shortly but did not give a specific timetable.
Interested Indian parties, including Aditya, were being encouraged to make a combined bid as part of a consortium, one source said. A second source denied media reports that India's Gujarat NRE Coke was also looking.
Whitehaven did not respond to requests for a comment. Korea Resources Corp said on March 9 that its consortium had pulled out of bidding for Whitehaven.
China's Shenhua Group and China Coal had also taken a look at Whitehaven but Chinese bidders had now been narrowed down to one, said one of the sources.
Aditya Birla, a telecoms-to-cement conglomerate, has thermal coal requirements for group companies Hindalco, India's top aluminum producer, and UltraTech Cement, the country's largest cement producer.
Large Whitehaven shareholder Alpha Natural Resources was not expected to bid after agreeing in January on a US$7.1 billion deal to buy Massey Energy Co.
Sources familiar with the deal have said previously that Whitehaven was seeking bids of at least A$7.50 (US$7.57) per share which would value the target at around A$3.7 billion. Whitehaven shares closed 1.1 percent lower at A$6.61 yesterday.
The sources could not be named since they were not authorized to speak to the media about the matter.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
