former macarthur director buys stake in pbs

Former Macarthur Director Buys Stake in PBS Coals (Update1)

By Jesse Riseborough

July 2 (Bloomberg) -- Talbot Group Holdings Ltd., the investment company owned by Australian coal millionaire Ken Talbot, bought a stake in PBS Coals Inc., which plans to have its shares start trading in Toronto next month.

PBS Coals owns mines in Pennsylvania, which produced about 2 million metric tons last year, Talbot Group said today in an e- mailed statement. Talbot is a ``substantial investor'' in PBS, it said without revealing the size of its holding. Talbot is the founder and former director of Macarthur Coal Ltd.

Talbot paid $190 million for a 19.9 percent stake in PBS Coals, the Australian Financial Review reported today. Talbot, who will serve as a director of PBS, is buying some of his stake from Sprott Resource Corp., managed by Sprott Asset Management group, the owner of a 6 percent stake in Macarthur, the newspaper said.

Talbot last week sold 5 percent of Macarthur to ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steelmaker, and 10 percent to Posco, Asia's third-biggest mill, for a total of A$636 million ($607 million).

Talbot's wealth was valued at A$913 million in May, according to the Business Review Weekly Annual Rich 200 list.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jesse Riseborough in Melbourne at [email protected]

Last Updated: July 1, 2008 22:07 EDT

PBS is a private British Columbia corporation which owns 85 per cent of the equity of the PBS Coals Group of Companies, a privately held group of companies engaged in the mining, processing and sale of metallurgical and thermal coal from their properties in central Pennsylvania. The PBS Group consists of PBS Coals Inc. and Rox Coal Inc., two Delaware corporations, and their subsidiaries and holding companies. The PBS Group currently produces approximately three million clean tons of bituminous coal a year from both its underground and surface operations. The PBS Group has initiated a mine expansion program to increase production to five million clean tons per year over the next two fiscal years (consisting primarily of metallurgical coal) and to complete construction of its Cambria processing facility.