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New UserAiling mining group UK Coal receives secret approach offering help from investment company Zamadini
07 Apr 2014
Ailing mining group UK Coal has received a secret approach offering help from investment company Zamadini, a little-known resources investor whose founder is linked to one of India’s richest mining moguls.
Zamadini has contacted both UK Coal and the National Union of Mineworkers to offer ‘assistance and collaboration’ to the British firm, which stands on the brink of insolvency, threatening the jobs of 2,000 miners.
UK Coal, which owns two of Britain’s few remaining deep-pit coal mines, is seeking a £10 million bridging loan from the Government to pay for an orderly closure of the sites, at Thorseby in Nottinghamshire and Kellingley in North Yorkshire.
London-based Zamadini is headed by Muqit Teja, son-in-law of India mining mogul Pramod Agarwal, who has made hundreds of millions of pounds through his privately owned mining and resources company Zamin Group.
Zamin shares office space with Zamadini in London, but a spokesman for Zamin said neither it nor Agarwal was involved in the approach to UK Coal.
Other parties who could be interested in buying assets or investing in UK Coal include rival British coal miner Hargreaves Services and veteran investor Jon Moulton, who on Friday said he could bid for some of UK Coal’s assets if the Government did not offer it loan.
Zamadini approached UK Coal in late March and again last week. It has also contact the NUM to outline its proposal.
Chris Kitchen, Secretary of the NUM, said: ‘They made an approach to UK Coal and they have come to us because they have not had a response. They requested our help. We are asking UK Coal why it has not responded and will meet them again on Tuesday.’
UK Coal issued a statement saying it was talking to ‘a wide range of interested parties’ about a managed rundown.
UK Coal was rescued from insolvency last year by the Pension Protection Fund, which guarantees reduced pension rights to those whose employers have gone bust.
Source: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/