South32 abandons deal to buy Peabody coal mine in Australia
South32 is ditching its first major deal since spinning off from BHP Billiton in 2015
18 April 2017 - 07:34
San Francisco/Sydney — South32 is ditching its first major deal since spinning off from BHP Billiton in 2015. The Perth-based company said Tuesday it’s walking away from Peabody Energy Corporation’s Metropolitan Colliery coal mine and its minority stake in the Port Kembla coal export terminal, both in Australia. It had agreed to pay at least $200m for the assets last year, but Australian regulators raised concerns the sale would weaken competition among coal suppliers to domestic steelmakers. South32 said it wasn’t willing to make concessions necessary to get the sale cleared.
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