Sunday, December 20, 2009

Ennore Coke Close To Acquiring Australian Coke Mine

The Financial Express has reported that Ennore Coke Limited is close to acquiring the Broughton coking coal mines in Australia, becoming the country's second met coke company after Gujarat NRE to have overseas coking coal assets.

Mr Ganesan Natarajan president & CEO of Ennore Coke said that the company is asked a price of USD 12 million for taking over 90% stake in Australia's Broughton coal mines having estimated reserves of 30 million tonne.

He added that "Although at one point of time we thought that the valuation would further drop to around USD 7 to USD 8 million, finally it has been valued at USD 15 million."

The process of stake acquisition is expected to be completed by July next year. Rio Tinto, the global mining giant, which was also in the race, finally backed out and paved Ennore's way for acquisition, he added.

Mr Natarajan said that the Haldia unit, which is currently expanding its capacity from 150,000 tonnes per annum to 300,000 tonnes per annum at an investment of INR 80 crore, would also require an additional 200,000 tonnes of coking coal above its present 600,000 tonnes requirement.

Source: Steel Guru/Financial Express

No comments: