The world's largest listed coal miner and steelmaker on Thursday sweetened their offer for Australian pulverized coal miner Macarthur Coal Ltd. (MCC.AU) to around A$4.73 billion, while moving a step closer to success by agreeing to start due diligence on the deal.

Peabody Energy Corp. (BTU) and ArcelorMittal (MT) on Monday announced they would start receiving data and site access from Macarthur from next Monday.

"Peabody and ArcelorMittal look forward to completing such confirmatory due diligence in a timely manner," the companies said in a joint statement.

St. Louis-based Peabody and Luxembourg-domiciled ArcelorMittal made an indicative A$15.50 per share bid for the company, the world's largest miner of pulverized steelmaking coal, announced Monday.

That offer came at a 40% premium to Macarthur's previous share price, but was treated as an upper limit that would be further reduced by subtracting the value of any final dividend declared by Macarthur's board.

In return for the agreement to start due diligence, Macarthur has insisted that any offer made in the next 12 months would be at least A$15.50 a share and would include the value of dividend payments up to 16 cents per share.

That would likely raise the value of the deal by around A$48.3 million, just under 1% of Monday's indicative offer. Macarthur said the proposal wasn't binding and shareholders should take no action.

"The Macarthur board is currently preparing an evaluation of the company's assets and resources and is exploring options to maximize value," the company said.

-By David Fickling, Dow Jones Newswires; +61 2 8272 4689; david.fickling@dowjones.com

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