Yanzhou Coal Mining Co (兗州煤業), China’s fourth-biggest producer of the fuel, may sell shares in its Australian operations should a A$3.5 billion (US$3.1 billion) takeover bid for Felix Resources Ltd be successful.
The initial public offer would include Yanzhou’s Austar coal mine in New South Wales, and the Felix operations, the Brisbane-based company said in a document filed to the Australian stock exchange on Wednesday. The sale may be carried out within two to three years of the purchase, the company said.
The acquisition requires approval from Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board amid increased scrutiny of purchases by China as the world’s biggest consumer of metals and second-biggest energy user accelerates takeovers. In June, Rio Tinto Group rebuffed a US$19.5 billion investment from state-owned Aluminum Corp of China (Chinalco, 中國鋁業).
“It’s possibly something to alleviate any concerns from the Foreign Investment Review Board perspective,” said Andrew Harrington, an analyst at Patersons Securities Ltd in Sydney. “I don’t understand the logic of buying out the whole company and floating it two to three years from now. They’re going to repackage what is already a package.”
The initial offer would depend on stock market values and benchmark power station coal prices at Newcastle “being not materially below their current levels,” the document shows.
Australia stopped a A$2.6 billion bid by state-owned China Minmetals Corp (中國五礦) for OZ Minerals Ltd in March on national-security concerns, and the review board blocked China Non-Ferrous Metal Mining (Group) Co (中國有色礦業集團) from buying a majority stake in rare earths producer Lynas Corp last Thursday.
Review board director Patrick Colmer said last month overseas investors should limit proposed stakes in major mining companies to no more than 15 percent to improve their chance of winning approval.
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