Pike River Coal has been sold to state-owned enterprise Solid Energy New Zealand under a conditional agreement, receivers for the mine said today. The company went into receivership after a mine explosion that killed the 29 workers in 2010. Before the disaster, the mine was valued at about $400 million.

Earthquake and disruptions related to the Pike River mining disaster slashed Solid Energy's profit by about $35 million. Also, its renewable energy businesses are not profitable and made a loss of $17m in the year to June 30. However, the state-owned coal miner's chairman, John Palmer, said the company produced a strong performance, with a 29 per cent increase in profit to $87.2m for the year to June 2011 from a 20 per cent lift in sales to $829m.