ANGLO American’s shortlist of bidders for its Australian metallurgical coal mines has been narrowed to three consisting of Yancoal Australia, Stanmore Resources, and Peabody Energy Corp., said Reuters.
The final bid submissions were due today.
Yancoal, Peabody and Anglo American declined to comment on the bidding process. Stanmore did not immediately reply to a request for comment. Reuters cited three sources with knowledge of the matter in its report.
Anglo is acting on a plan to restructure its business by selling and divesting unwanted assets after fighting off a $49bn takeover bid from larger rival BHP Group in May.
The group announced on November 4 that it would sell its 33.3% stake in Jellinbah Group, a joint venture which has a 70% stake in two metallurgical coal mines in Australia. The mines – Jellinbah East and Lake Vermont – were sold for A$1.6bn (US$1.06bn) to Zashvin Ltd, a 33.3% shareholder in Jellinbah Group. The mines contributed $153m to group Ebitda in the first half of Anglo American’s 2024 financial year.
The sales would end Anglo’s active mining operations in Australia but it will continue exploration activities in the country, said Reuters. The sales process is expected to conclude by the end of the month, when a freeze on BHP making an approach for Anglo set down by the UK takeovers legislation expires.
“Inasmuch as the achieved price is roughly in line with our estimate and higher than market expectations, we view this as a positive outcome,” said analysts at Bank of America of the November 4 announement.
The bank values Anglo’s metallurgical coal assets at $3.8bn to $5.4bn which compares to Anglo’s median sell-side valuation on coking coal assets at $3.3bn.
