Shares in Citic Resources rose 24 per cent yesterday after the company, a unit of state-owned Citic Group, said it would sell its stake in Australian miner Macarthur Coal.
Citic Resources and Citic Group are selling their combined 25 per cent of Macarthur to two bidders for the Queensland-based coal company, European steelmaker Arcelor Mittal and US miner Peabody Group.
Citic Resources announced it would turn a profit of up to A$398 million (HK$3.17 billion).
The mainland companies have rejected previous bids for Macarthur by Peabody, which made its first offer in March last year.
The US miner joined forces with Arcelor in July. Since then, Peabody and Arcelor raised their offer from A$15.50 a share to A$16, with the Queensland company agreeing to the takeover in late August.
The two Macarthur suitors will raise the offer price further, to A$16.25, if they get 90 per cent shareholder acceptance by November 11. That would value MacArthur at A$4.9 billion. The Citic sales take the joint bidders' ownership of Macarthur to 49 per cent.
Mining remains a frenetic sector for mergers.