Billionaire Czech businessman Pavel Tyka's plan to buy a controlling stake in Australian-US coal miner Coronado Global Resources (ASX:CRN) has collapsed. His family investment group, Sev.en Global Investments, failed to secure approval from the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) for the deal.
Sev.en had agreed to purchase 51% of Coronado from Energy and Minerals Group (EMG), a Houston-headquartered private equity firm that established the miner and listed it on the ASX in 2018. EMG has remained a major shareholder in the company.
The deal was initially disclosed in an announcement on September 29, 2023. At that time, Coronado revealed that SGI and EMG had signed a binding agreement for SGI to acquire all of EMG’s interest in Coronado, subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals.
EMG stated on Tuesday that the agreement had an outside completion date of June 22, 2024 (the “Outside Date”). "EMG has terminated the agreement due to certain conditions not being met by the Outside Date (including receipt of FIRB regulatory approval),” EMG said.
Coronado produces high-quality metallurgical coal from three mining complexes in two of the largest metallurgical coal basins globally – Queensland’s Bowen Basin and the Central Appalachian region of the US.
In recent years, Coronado has engaged in takeover discussions with Peabody, a major US coal miner, explored the BHP coal mines sold to Whitehaven (Coronado withdrew early), and now faced the approach from the Czech billionaire.
Coronado's shares rose to $2 each when the deal was first announced last September. They traded at $1.20 yesterday, showing a 0.4% increase. Year to date in 2024, the shares have dropped by 32%, indicating skepticism from the market about the deal's completion.
