Last year was a stressful one for Gloucester Coal as it found itself in the cross-hairs of Xstrata, a mean predator who formally may a bid for the company in April 2007 at $4.75ps. The bid was via a Scheme of Arrangement which the Board of Gloucester Coal recommended shareholders accept, subject to there not being a higher offer. However, in the run through to the shareholder meeting in July, the Noble Group and AMCI became substantial shareholders with 10.4% and 10% respectively.
Not surprisingly, shareholders turned down the Xstrata offer and the share price traded as high as $7.00ps last December. Even after the recent market correction, GCL still trades well above the Xstrata offer price reflecting the strength of the coal market and giving the company a market capitalisation of around $500M.
Come along and hear from the new CEO Rob Lord about Gloucester’s Stratford JV, planned upgrades, shipping issues through the Port of Newcastle and the outlook for coal.
Rob Yeates,
Project Director
Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group
New Coal Loader for Newcastle - NCIG (Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group) was formed in 2004 by a number of Hunter Valley coal producers to facilitate improvements to the coal export chain. Their common concern was that there be adequate capacity to be able to export to the growing Asian coal market. Vessel queues and allocation schemes indicated that there was a problem. In 2005 the NSW government awarded NCIG land in Newcastle harbour suitable for construction of a new coal export terminal.
In 2007 development consent was granted and in 2008 funding to construct the terminal was finalized. Construction is now underway. NCIG has faced a number of major hurdles on the way.
NCIG shareholders are BHPBilliton, Peabody Energy, Felix Resources, Whitehaven Coal, Donaldson Coal and Centennial Coal. All are in the process of increasing their exports of coal.
The talk will cover the rationale and strategy for the terminal, the hurdles faced, the innovative funding and future plans for the terminal. Rob Yeates, having been with NCIG from the start, is well placed to talk on this important new billion dollar development.
