Yancoal’s Chinese parent company is considering a $US1.8bn ($2.5bn) bid to capture the remaining shares in the company, in what could be the first major test of foreign investment rules for incoming federal treasurer Jim Chalmers.
Yankuang Energy Group told the Hong Kong Exchange on Wednesday night it was considering offering convertible bonds to mop up the 37.7 per cent stake in Yancoal it does not own, worth about $US3.60 a share, which would convert to Yankuang shares on the Hong Kong exchange.
Yankuang Energy Group told the Hong Kong Exchange on Wednesday night it was considering offering convertible bonds to mop up the 37.7 per cent stake in Yancoal it does not own, worth about $US3.60 a share, which would convert to Yankuang shares on the Hong Kong exchange.
Alternatively, Yancoal holders could elect to hang on to the bonds and take fixed interest and principal repayments over time, Yankuang said.
The Hong Kong-listed energy major would only have to convince three major Yancoal shareholders to take its scrip through the offer, given only about 10 per cent of Yancoal’s ASX-listed shares are held by institutional or retail investors.
But that may not be easy, given Yankuang’s $US3.60 a share valuation is well below the $6.08 the company last traded at on the ASX, which currently values the minority holdings in Yancoal at about $3bn.