| Gujarat
NRE in Australian Coal Deal
(The Telegraph, September 13, 2005)
Gujarat NRE Coke has
picked up a stake in another coal producing company in Australia,
its third such deal so far.
The company has paid $6.25 million to buy a 5 per cent stake
in Resource Pacific Holding, a listed company on the Australian
Stock Exchange having market capitalisation of A$160 million.
The acquisition will
give Gujarat NRE Coke access to high-grade coking coal.
The company, the largest non-captive producer of metallurgical
coke in India, will be importing 500,000 tonnes per annum
for 10 years, starting 2006.
A company executive told The Telegraph that it could buy more
if Australian company produces more.
Gujarat NRE�s offtake of 5 million tonnes over the next decade
is based on production figure of 4 MT a year following completion
of its longwall expansion.
The company has also acquired a colliery named NRE 1 and a
lease of Avondale colliery, now named NRE II.
It has bought a 30 per cent stake in a mining company, Zinico
Resource NL, which has a potential iron ore block.
�We hope to import 2.5 million tonnes of coking coal to India
from Australia by 2007,� the company executive pointed out.
�This strategic investment further strengthens the position
of our company in the Australian coal market place and secures
an additional reliable source of quality coal,� said vice-chairman
and managing director Arun Jagatramka.
Resource Pacific owns and operates the Newpac 1 Colliery in
the Hunter Valley region of New South Wales and contains one
of the largest identified semi-soft coking coal reserves in
the region. It can be mentioned that the Avondale and NRE
1 collieries are also located in the New South Wales region.
The Calcutta-based company is on an acquisition spree lately.
The group recently diversified into the e-commerce domain
by acquiring SteelRX Corporation, a Delhi-based steel and
metals e-commerce company that owns and operates portals like
www.steelrx.com.
SteelRX Corporation is one of the leading steel and metals
portal, which acts as a neutral platform for buying and selling
of steel and metal products.
In the National Stock Exchange today, the Gujarat NRE Coke
stock went up by Rs 3.70 or 2.67 per cent to Rs 142.25 with
10,886,79 shares traded. |
