Noble Bids For Rest Of Gloucester Coal
US coal miner, Peabody Energy, has raised its bid for Macarthur Energy, the Australian coal producer, to $3.27 billion after Macarthur spurned Peabody's initial $3 billion offer. Peabody has now upped its bid $14 a share for Macarthur – a $1 a share increase on last week’s offer.
In a separate development, Singapore-based commodities trader, Noble Group, has made an all cash offer for the remaining shares of Gloucester Coal it does not already own. The company has offered $12.60 a share for the remaining 12.3% stake. Noble already owns 87.7% of Gloucester and says its offer is a 35.3% premium to Gloucester’s closing price on 1 April.
Yesterday, Noble derided Peabody's bid for Macarthur in a colourful statement to the Singapore Stock Exchange.
Peabody's offer is still conditional on Macarthur not acquiring Gloucester Coal. The American firm is attempting to delay a meeting on 12 April when investors will vote on the Gloucester deal. Gloucester executives have told their shareholders to vote in favour of Macarthur's offer.
Meanwhile, Macarthur’s third-largest shareholder, the Korean steelmaker POSCO, has said that it wishes to remain a shareholder of Macarthur regardless of any offer for the company. POSCO has an 8.3% stake in Macarthur.
Macarthur shares were suspended for a while on Tuesday pending the announcement of Peabody’s revised offer, but trading resumed later in the day and shares closed up 23c at $15.10 a share, 7.9% above the Peabody offer price.
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