On March 11, steelmaking coal producers Vancouver, Canada-based Western Coal Corp. (Western) and Florida, US-based Walter Energy (Walter) Inc. announced that the Supreme Court of British Columbia has issued a final order approving the proposed plan of arrangement involving the acquisition of Western by Walter.
As SteelOrbis disclosed in previous reports, on March 8 Western's shareholders voted in favor of the proposed acquisition of the company by Walter for C$3.3 billion. The proposed transaction was approved by over 99.5 percent of the shareholders.
Completion of the arrangement remains conditional on satisfaction of other customary conditions, including receipt of approval under the Investment Canada Act. The Investment Canada review process is proceeding as anticipated and is expected to be completed prior to the anticipated closing date of April 1, 2011.
As SteelOrbis previously reported, the agreement between the companies regarding acquisition was first announced in November last year.
Walter recorded US$1.6 billion revenues in 2010 on record coking coal sales of 7.2 million mt. Western sold 3.81 million mt of coal, achieving C$594.4 million in sales revenues, in the first nine months ended on December 31, 2011.