Gloucester board favours Noble's revised $7 per share bid

19 May 2009

 At the end of a long drawn battle, Hong Kong-based commodity trader Noble Group emerged as the favourite as the board of Australian miner Gloucester Coal Ltd declared the revised Noble bid to be a superior proposal.

This proposal is more in the interests of Gloucester shareholders than Gloucester's reverse bid for Whitehaven, the board said on Monday.

Gloucester was proposing a merger with Whitehaven via a scrip-based reverse takeover, which has an implied value of A$4.83 per share.

 In a last minute move, Noble had revised its bid offer on Friday by 17 per cent to A$572 million ($429 million for the 78.3 per cent it did not own in Gloucester, which operates the Stratford and Duralie open-cut mines, near Gloucester, in the Hunter Valley.

Gloucester had earlier resisted a $6-a-share bid from Noble in favour of an all-scrip merger with Whitehaven, which the company said would enhance its operating synergies.

Barry Tudor, the former chief financial officer of Gloucester who has since joined Noble's senior ranks, told media that he was ''very confident'' the increased offer would be welcomed by the 90 per cent of Gloucester's institutional shareholders.