Shares in NSW coal miner Gloucester Coal were suspended from trading yesterday after it revealed it was in talks for potential acquisitions and a capital raising.
Gloucester, which is 65%-owned by giant Asian commodities trader Noble Group, went into a trading halt at its request after saying in a statement that it was looking at "two potential acquisitions and a potential capital raising".
The shares last traded at $9.90 last Friday.
It will remain in a trading halt until tomorrow, unless it makes a prior announcement.
Gloucester owns almost 50% of the Middlemount project in Queensland’s Bowen Basin with Macarthur Coal, which has also seen off interest from suitors in recent years.
Gloucester also has two operations in NSW’s Gloucester region and reported a fall in production in the March quarter after heavy rain.
In 2009 Macarthur Coal made a failed takeover bid for Gloucester Coal, valuing Gloucester at $668.8 million.
The deal was part of a complicated shuffle of assets that would have seen Noble Group strengthen its control over Macarthur, which is the world’s biggest exporter of pulverised coal for injection into blast furnaces.
Macarthur has big shareholders including Posco of South Korea, Citic of China and Arcelor Mittal, the world’s biggest steelmaker.
Xstrata and Peabody Energy of the US have also nibbled at Macarthur.
