Coal companies invest heavily at home and abroad

Recently, a number of coal companies have taken over the acquisition of coal assets, which undoubtedly shows the ambition and pace of the rapid expansion of coal companies. Experts believe that it is precisely the prospect of the coal market that coal companies will dare to invest heavily.

Last week, Yanzhou Coal officially announced that Yanzhou Coal, Yancoal Australia and Gloucester had signed the "Merger Proposal Agreement" on December 22. According to the proposal agreement, after the completion of this transaction, Yanzhou Coal will hold a 77% stake in Yancoal Australia and existing Gloucester shareholders will hold 23% of Yancoal Australia's shares. Although the specific amount was not disclosed, industry analysts said that the merger of Yancoal Australia and Gloucester will form Australia’s largest coal company. In the same week, the Jingyuan Coal Power Disclosure Restructuring Plan suspended for more than three months stated that the company plans to issue 16.259.17 million shares to the controlling shareholder Jingmei Group at a price of RMB 16.36 per share to purchase its own coal production and Related to the exploration and design, gas power generation and other operating assets, the estimated value of the target assets is about 2.66 billion yuan.

With the high coal prices and the difficulty of acquiring coal mines, these companies are still acquiring coal yards. Experts believe that this is caused by the huge potential of the coal market. Zhang Min, an information analyst at Zhuochuang, said that due to the non-renewability of coal resources, the country has begun to make directional adjustments to the coal industry's export policies, from encouraging coal exports to restricting coal exports. Yanzhou Coal currently has a high annual output of coal, and its mine source has a lower service life than other coal mines. Whether it is to extend the service life to avoid the embarrassing situation of no mining or mining, or to increase the annual output of coal, it is a natural choice for Yanzhou Coal to take possession of coal resources and develop new coal mines.

However, compared to the mergers and acquisitions of the above two coal companies, the difference lies in one acquisition of foreign coal resources, and the other acquisition of domestic resources. Which is more cost-effective?

In this regard, Zhang Min said that in a sense, the acquisition of foreign coal is more cost-effective. “At present, the price difference between imported coal and domestic coal prices is around RMB 30-50/ton. In Australia, for example, the entire coal industry in Australia is now losing money. The acquisition of a coal mine like Jining No. 3 well in Australia is just over 500 million. Yuan, and the Jining No. 3 well has used more than 2 billion yuan."