Hi all - took a position here yesterday, and thought I would...

Hi all - took a position here yesterday, and thought I would share some commentary from Perpetual AM who is a LT holder of Whitehaven and who hold an overweight position - See below -

"The overweight to Whitehaven detracted from performance over the month (-17.09%). Thermal coal prices were initially lower through the start of the month, however the underperformance was more driven by risks to the balance sheet from the decision to only sell down one of the assets being acquired from BHP as part of the transition from a largely thermal coal producer to a largely coking/metallurgical coal producer. Whitehaven is acquiring the Blackwater and Duania mines from BHP for a total consideration of US$4.1b, and is looking to sell down a 20-30% interest in these assets to key customers as part of the deleveraging process. Whitehaven recently received initial approvals for its Winchester South project that is adjacent to Daunia, which has delayed the sell down of that asset as it will take a couple of years to work through an integration proposal for those assets. We remain comfortable that WHC has enough funding in place to complete the acquisition and will deleverage from cash flow and bringing in a JV partner to Blackwater in 2Q24 (completion 2H24). With the stigmatism attached to thermal coal from the global goal of reducing carbon emissions, increasing exposure to coking coal used in steel production has the potential to drive a re-rating of Whitehaven."