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Cakra bids for Cokal in play for Indonesia coal project

Indonesian firm Cakra Mineral Tbk has offered at least A$70 million ($54 million) to take over Australian miner Cokal Ltd, looking to get its hands on a coal project in central Kalimantan.

Cokal said on Tuesday it had received an incomplete proposal from Cakra, a company with iron ore and zircon sand mines, proposing to offer A$70 million in cash, or A$0.15 a share, which would be a 58 percent premium to Cokal's last trade.

As an alternative, Cakra proposed offering shares in Cakra worth A$87.5 million, which at current prices would value Cokal shares at A$0.19 each.

"Cokal has not formed any opinion on the proposal. Its present intention is to engage with CKRA to evaluate the proposal," the company said in a statement to the Australian stock exchange.

While the premium being offered looks large the proposal is well below the A$124 million that Cokal was offered in October 2013 from Singapore firm Blumont Group. That deal was scrapped after Blumont's shares plummeted.

The offer comes as Cokal has been struggling to line up funding for its promising Bumi Barito Mineral metallurgical coal project in Indonesia as coal prices have been trading just above six-year lows.

($1 = 1.2892 Australian dollars)

source: http://in.reuters.com