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.
MORE VISITORS: The Tourism Administration said that it is seeing positive prospects in its efforts to expand the tourism market in North America and Europe Taiwan has been ranked as the cheapest place in the world to travel to this year, based on a list recommended by NerdWallet. The San Francisco-based personal finance company said that Taiwan topped the list of 16 nations it chose for budget travelers because US tourists do not need visas and travelers can easily have a good meal for less than US$10. A bus ride in Taipei costs just under US$0.50, while subway rides start at US$0.60, the firm said, adding that public transportation in Taiwan is easy to navigate. The firm also called Taiwan a “food lover’s paradise,” citing inexpensive breakfast stalls
TRADE: A mandatory declaration of origin for manufactured goods bound for the US is to take effect on May 7 to block China from exploiting Taiwan’s trade channels All products manufactured in Taiwan and exported to the US must include a signed declaration of origin starting on May 7, the Bureau of Foreign Trade announced yesterday. US President Donald Trump on April 2 imposed a 32 percent tariff on imports from Taiwan, but one week later announced a 90-day pause on its implementation. However, a universal 10 percent tariff was immediately applied to most imports from around the world. On April 12, the Trump administration further exempted computers, smartphones and semiconductors from the new tariffs. In response, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration has introduced a series of countermeasures to support affected
CROSS-STRAIT: The vast majority of Taiwanese support maintaining the ‘status quo,’ while concern is rising about Beijing’s influence operations More than eight out of 10 Taiwanese reject Beijing’s “one country, two systems” framework for cross-strait relations, according to a survey released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday. The MAC’s latest quarterly survey found that 84.4 percent of respondents opposed Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula for handling cross-strait relations — a figure consistent with past polling. Over the past three years, opposition to the framework has remained high, ranging from a low of 83.6 percent in April 2023 to a peak of 89.6 percent in April last year. In the most recent poll, 82.5 percent also rejected China’s
PLUGGING HOLES: The amendments would bring the legislation in line with systems found in other countries such as Japan and the US, Legislator Chen Kuan-ting said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷) has proposed amending national security legislation amid a spate of espionage cases. Potential gaps in security vetting procedures for personnel with access to sensitive information prompted him to propose the amendments, which would introduce changes to Article 14 of the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法), Chen said yesterday. The proposal, which aims to enhance interagency vetting procedures and reduce the risk of classified information leaks, would establish a comprehensive security clearance system in Taiwan, he said. The amendment would require character and loyalty checks for civil servants and intelligence personnel prior to