MELBOURNE (Dow Jones)--Trading halts for miners Macarthur Coal Ltd. (MCC.AU) and Gloucester Coal Ltd. (GCL.AU) are linked, two people familiar with the situation said Tuesday, without giving further detail. Both miners requested trading halts Tuesday, with Gloucester saying there was a prospect of a transaction relating to the control of the company and Macarthur saying it expects to make a significant announcement in relation to a material corporate transaction. Macarthur Chief Executive Nicole Hollows said the company has not yet reached a final agreement on the possible corporate transaction and will make an announcement Tuesday afternoon local time if a deal is struck. "We will be announcing if we get a transaction that we are potentially looking at (0400 GMT) this afternoon," she told Dow Jones Newswires. "We still don't have any kind of transaction that is agreed right at this moment in time." Hollows declined to comment on the details of the possible transaction or on whether it was a possible merger with Gloucester. Hong-Kong based, Singapore listed commodites company Noble Group Ltd. (N21.SG), which owns 87.7% of Gloucester Coal, also went into a trading halt on Tuesday pending an announcement.
MCC Price at posting:
$9.71 Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held