No move yet to rival Peabody’s miner bid

Sources said yesterday that Anglo, one of Australia’s top coal producers, was among suitors looking at Macarthur’s finances.

But they said it would not necessarily move forward with an offer to challenge the $5bn (£3bn) bid currently on the table from long-time suitor Peabody and partner ArcelorMittal, which owns 16.1 per cent of Macarthur.

The sources played down reports of a possible tie-up between Anglo and China’s Citic, Macarthur’s biggest shareholder, as premature, though analysts and others in the industry said that would be a good move from Anglo if it was to move forward and succeed in beating Peabody’s offer.

Citic has not declared where it stands on the bid, despite market speculation it is opposed to Peabody’s offer and could back a rival suitor.

It has held talks with the Peabody camp, one of the sources said.

Citic has a 24.6 per cent stake and was a major stumbling block in 2010, when Macarthur was the subject of a three-way bidding war that also included Peabody.

It agreed then to talk with Peabody, the highest bidder, but those talks collapsed after Peabody cut its offer when the Australian government introduced a mining tax.

Both Macarthur and Anglo American declined to comment.

Macarthur shares closed up 2.7 per cent at A$15.74 on Monday, just above the Peabody offer of A$15.66 per share, including a 16 cent dividend.

Other potential suitors for Macarthur, the world’s largest producer of seaborne pulverised coal, include the likes of majors Xstrata, Vale and Rio Tinto, with Rio and Xstrata seen as possible eventual suitors.