China’s Yanzhou Coal Mining (兗州煤業) is in talks to buy Australian coal miner Felix Resources Ltd in a cash takeover bid worth about A$3.5 billion (US$2.9 billion), a person close to the negotiations said yesterday.
The Chinese miner is offering slightly less than the A$20 per share previously mentioned in media reports, said a person close to the deal who spoke on condition of anonymity because the bid is not finalized. Shares of the Brisbane-based Felix last traded at A$16.90.
China, which relies on coal for about 60 percent of its power and is the world’s biggest coal consumer, has been buying coal and other resources from overseas to meet growing demand. But there has been some opposition in Australia to China’s bids for the country’s mineral resources.
Shares of Felix were suspended from trading in Australia on Monday, as were shares of Yanzhou in Hong Kong. In an announcement on Monday to the Australian Securities Exchange, Felix said it expected to remain suspended from trading for five days pending an announcement on a potential change of control. Felix officials declined to comment further.
A woman at Yanzhou’s office for the board secretary, who would not give her name, referred questions to a statement the company posted on Monday on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. In the statement, Yanzhou said it was suspending trading while it worked on a “major capital restructuring project.”
In June, Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto Ltd abandoned a US$19.5 billion deal with state-controlled Aluminum Corp of China (中國鋁業), better known as Chinalco, amid concerns that a foreign state-backed enterprise would own a strategic stake in the country’s biggest natural resource assets.
Tensions between Beijing and Canberra flared last month when China detained four Rio Tinto workers — including an Australian citizen — on accusations of spying amid protracted talks on iron ore prices with Chinese steel mills.
Beijing has released no details about the case, but state media say the men are suspected of paying bribes for information on China’s negotiating stance in iron ore price talks.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary