Peabody Eyes Partnership With Coal India
NEW YORK (
) --
Coal India
says that it has been approached with no fewer than seven proposals by
Peabody Energy
(BTU) - Get Report
to pair up on international coal assets, according to
WSJ.
Coal India is investigating two of them, which involve joint ventures and purchasing stakes in coal properties, according to
WSJ
. Coal India's chairman, Partha Bhattacharyya, hasn't specified on a timeline for completing the due diligence and coming to a decision about the proposals, according to the report.
Coal India, one of the world's largest coal producers, placed a tender last summer looking for coal mining business partners in the Asia Pacific, U.S. and South Africa, as the publicly run company looks to obtain more energy sources for rapidly-developing India. Since then, it has been approached with 17 proposals from various companies, with Peabody Energy being one of them, according to the report.
Coal India may pour $2 billion of investment in the next four years to acquire stakes in coal assets abroad, as domestic production hasn't been able to adequately meet domestic industrial and power demand, according to
WSJ.
Peabody stock and peer company stock
Arch Coal
(ACI) - Get Report
are flat in pre-market trading, while
Patriot Coal
(PCX)
is slightly lower at $20.20, down 0.3%. On March 15, Patriot Coal said it reached an agreement to sell about 1.5 million tons of metallurgical coal for delivery, beginning in April 2010 through early 2011, to steel mills in the Pacific Rim. Patriot Coal said the sale was arranged through a third party,
Xcoal
, which has an extensive presence in Asian markets.
-- Reported by Andrea Tse in New York
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