St. Louis, US-based coal giant Peabody Energy Corp., which is competing with Australian coal producer New Hope Corp., and Hong Kong's Noble Group Ltd for control of leading low-volatile metallurgical coal producer Australia-based Macarthur Coal Ltd, has announced a revised offer to acquire the whole of Macarthur for AU$16 per share or a total of AU$4.1 billion (US$3.8 billion).
Peabody said on April 15 that its "proposal is clearly superior to Macarthur's proposed takeover offer for Gloucester Coal and associated transactions with Noble and other proposals that Macarthur has disclosed."
As SteelOrbis previously reported, Macarthur Coal Limited had announced on February 26 that its board confirmed a bid to takeover New South Wales-based Gloucester, which operates mines in the Hunter Valley and is largely owned by Noble Group. The coal producer is offering Gloucester shareholders 0.84 Macarthur shares for every one Gloucester share held or AU$8 a share. Gloucester has recommended shareholders accept Macarthur's offer, while Macarthur rejected previous proposals by Peabody and New Hope.
Peabody also said that the proposal will lapse if Macarthur proceeds with the shareholder vote scheduled for April 19, 2010, or if the Gloucester/Noble Group transactions proceed.
Chinese investment group CITIC Group, European steel giant ArcelorMittal and South Korea's POSCO are the largest stakeholders in Macarthur.
According to a Macarthur statement on April 13, while CITIC group gives open support to the Gloucester deal, the other two largest stakeholders have not made up their minds about how to vote in the stakeholder vote about the future of the company on April 19.