China’s Yanzhou Coal, which earlier this month beat out Glencore to buy Rio Tinto’s Australian coal mines, said on Thursday the Anglo-Swiss mining and trading group would now buy a 16.6 per cent stake in the assets for $429m.
The deal with Glencore, if confirmed, would also see the miner invest up to $300m in Yanzhou’s share issue, which it is carrying out to raise the funds necessary for its purchase of the Coal & Allied mines by its Australian-listed subsidiary Yancoal in Australia’s Hunter Valley.
Glencore’s billionaire chief executive Ivan Glasenberg attempted to gatecrash Yancoal’s earlier deal but was ultimately rebuffed by Rio, though not before both sides raised their offers, with the Chinese state-backed group paying $2.69bn.