Alpha's Deal
Alpha agreed to pay over $7 billion in cash and stock to acquire Massey. The deal is being structured as a mix of equity and cash, with Massey shareholders getting 1.025 shares of Alpha (and thereby owning about 46% of the combined company) and $10 in cash. That is not only a 21% premium to where Massey closed on Friday (and the stock has been strong since the summer of 2010), but a rather high multiple relative to normal historical coal stock metrics. (For more, see Coal Burns Bright Despite Pressures.)
Alpha may have felt that it needed to make an impressive bid for Massey in order to fend off potential rivals. Though unattributed rumors are hardly proof, it does not seem unreasonable that companies like Arch Coal (NYSE:ACI) or ArcelorMittal (NYSE:MT) may have been interested in Massey as well.
What Alpha Will Be
With this deal, Alpha acquires 2.9 billion tons in coal reserves, with 1.3 billion of those being the more valuable metallurgical coal. All told, the combined company will have more than 5 billion tons in coal reserves and will become a real player in the global met coal market. Though BHP Billiton (NYSE:BHP), Mitsubishi and Teck Resources (NYSE:TCK) will still have roughly 40% of the world met coal market, the new Alpha will crack into the double-digits in terms of share of the global seabourne market.
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