Anglo American sells coal assets to Peabody for $3.8bn
The move is the first of four big asset divestments Anglo announced in May, after it fought off a $49bn hostile takeover attempt from BHP.
The Charleston Gazette reports on Tuesday that the families of seven miners who died in the Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster in West Virginia have filed a new lawsuit against owners Massey Energy, challenging Massey’s proposed acquisition by Alpha Natural Resources.
The suit alleges that the CEO and other Massey insiders “will receive tremendous financial benefit” – estimated at some $196m – from the $8.5bn deal, while victims of the disaster “will be subject to great risk and uncertainty.” Massey has put its estimated losses from any suits or settlements with the disaster’s victims at $78m, or $3m per victim.
Ken Ward Jr. writing in the Charleston Gazette quotes from the suit:
“As a result of the misconduct and mismanagement of the insider defendants… all assets of [Massey] are being transferred to Alpha in the merger,” it says. “In doing so, the insider defendants, as well as other members of management, including former CEO Don Blankenship, are liquidating risk into cash and are able to walk away from the merger with substantial amounts of cash while the plaintiff creditors will have nothing more than unsecured claims against a highly leveraged, cash-poor company.”
