Potential Daunia Aquisition, page-179

Extract from article in AUST Business today:
BHP COAL BIDDERS TOLD TO GET SERIOUS ON FUNDING

Suitors for BHP’s Daunia and Blackwater coal mines are being asked to firm up their financing plans for an acquisition of the assets, expected to be offloaded for between $US3bn and $US6bn ($4.64bn-9.29bn) in the coming weeks.
Sources say a deal is still a few weeks away, with most now pointing to Whitehaven Coal as the frontrunner.
BUMA, Stanmore Coal, Whitehaven Coal and Peabody Energy are also still in the race.
BUMA has bid only for Blackwater, which generated $2.5bn in earnings last year.
The $2.6bn listed Stanmore Coal is understood to have bid for Daunia, and is known to be relatively conservative when it comes to acquisitions.
The general understanding is that Peabody Energy has also bid for Daunia.
Whitehaven is bidding for both assets.
BHP is believed to be highly motivated to offload the Blackwater mine, which is the larger. It produces both thermal and metallurgical coal and has about $1bn worth of remediation costs.
It is unlikely to part with Daunia without Blackwater, sources say, despite Daunia being more popular.
How Whitehaven funds a transaction is an issue, with some shareholders vigorously opposed to an equity raising.
They instead hope the company will return much of its $2.65bn net cash generated from booming coal prices in the past year to investors.