Aditya Birla group likely to bid for Aussie firm New Hope

The Aditya Birla Group has begun the process to bid for acquiring Australian coal company New Hope, valued at $5.2 billion.

Talks between Aditya Birla Group, which owns Hindalco Industries and UltraTech Cement, and New Hope have moved beyond the initial stages, industry sources said, adding the $35-billion conglomerate was likely to appoint advisors in the next few days for the deal.

The group is also mulling on raising funds on its own or form a joint venture for the acquisition, sources said. "We do not comment on market speculations," Aditya Birla Natural Resources' Managing Director Tuhin Mukherjee said, when asked about it.

There could be some other Indian bidders for acquisition of New Hope, which had put itself up for bidding last month.

Speculations were rife that Tata Power, together with another group firm Tata Steel, may also bid for the Australian miner, which operates the New Acland mine in Queensland and a port handling facility, with total coal production of about six million tonnes per annum of thermal coal.

This, however, could not be verified independently.

Tata Power said in a statement that "no specific comment can be offered with regards to the opportunity referred in your communication as the company doesn't comment on speculation". It also stated the company keeps on evaluating various opportunities to acquire resources including coal mines globally.

Officials of the Tata Steel, who did not want to be identified, said at this point the company was not interested in acquiring New Hope independently as it is a thermal coal producer. However, the Tata Steel officials kept mum on putting up a joint bid with Tata Power for the Australian miner.

When asked, a Tata Steel spokesperson refused to comment. JSW Steel, another talked about interested company in acquiring New Hope, has opted out of the race by saying that it was never interested in acquiring the Australian miner.

A spokesperson for New Hope said in an email response that "we have no further comment to make on the process outside of the Australian Securities Exchange announcement of October 5 that you will have seen."

Last month, while announcing it was up for sale, New Hope had said, "Under the formal process, selected parties will be invited to submit proposals to the board for its consideration. The process is expected to take several months and may or may not result in a proposal being made or recommended by the board," it said.