Pike River sale clinched in one week after disposal stalled last year: receiver
Receiver speaks out.
BUSINESSDESK: The sale of the Pike River Coal mine was agreed in just the past week after the process stalled last year as interested parties set various conditions on their bids, the receivers say.
Receiver John Fisk of PwC told BusinessDesk the assets were exposed to the market for some time, and “all the parties had conditions they needed to work through before they would commit to a deal.”
That accelerated in the past week, with state-owned coal miner Solid Energy agreeing to buy the mine’s assets, which include a 58.5 million tonne resource of premium high fluidity hard coking coal of which 17.6 million tonnes is estimated to be saleable, subject to due diligence. Fisk said no material assets were excluded from the deal.
Until the bid is unconditional, Fisk said he can’t divulge much information, including the sale price, but he will update creditors once he’s in a position to.
Creditor New Zealand Oil & Gas said the final terms of the deal are still to be agreed, and will give an update on the distribution of funds once the sale and purchase agreement is signed.
Fisk said there’s still capacity to continue with the reclamation plan after some staff were laid off, but any future work will lay with Solid Energy.
In 2009, several explosions killed 29 miners and forced the closure of the operation and led to a Royal Commission of Inquiry into what occurred. NZX-listed Pike River Coal was pushed into receivership.
Solid Energy said it wouldn’t release any details of the transaction until the deal is unconditional.
In October, state-owned Solid Energy was reported as teaming up with China’s Shanxi Corp to buy the assets.
The acquisition comes a month after Solid Energy bought back the 49 percent of the Spring Creek coal mine it didn’t own for an undisclosed sum.
Solid Energy has been flagged for a partial sell-down in the government’s mixed ownership model, which is expected to kick off in the third quarter this year with MightyRiverPower.
BusinessDesk
Fri, 09 Mar 2012
Fri, 09 Mar 2012
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Pike River sale clinched in one week after disposal stalled last year: receiver
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