Yancoal Australia has been cleared by its Chinese parent, Yanzhou Coal Mining, to sell 16.6 percent of the key assets of Rio Tinto 's Coal & Allied division, once its completes the $2.69 billion Coal & Allied acquisition.
Yanzhou said in an announcement to the Hong Kong stock exchange late on Wednesday that its board had approved a resolution to allow Yancoal to transfer a 16.6 percent interest in the HVO (Hunter Valley Operations) joint venture to a "third party" following its acquisition of Coal & Allied.
HVO is widely regarded as the more valuable of the two Hunter Valley coal complexes that Yancoal is set to acquire from Rio under the deal.
Rio Tinto shareholders last month approved the sale of Coal & Allied to Yancoal, ending a bidding war with commodities trader Glencore. Australia-listed shares were placed in a trading halt on Thursday pending an announcement. Yancoal, which is 78 percent owned by Yanzhou, was not available to comment.
HVO is 67.6 percent held by Coal & Allied and 32.4 percent by Mitsubishi Corp. Mitsubishi has agreed to sell its stake to Yancoal. was not immediately available to comment on whether it would seek to acquire the 16.6 percent interest.
Glencore is already the world's largest exporter of sea-traded thermal coal, with interests in 28 mines in Australia, Colombia and South Africa. It aimed to blend Rio Tinto coal with its existing operations to custom-tailor shipments to power-generating customers in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.
Glencore first tried to acquire Coal & Allied in 2015, when Rio Tinto made it clear that coal was no longer part of its growth strategy.
