JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Diversified miner Teck has agreed to sell 27,6-million units of Fording Canadian Coal Trust to an unnamed Canadian chartered bank, for $83,30 apiece.

Vancouver-based Teck will use the proceeds of the sale to cover part of the cash portion of its acquisition of Fording's assets, the firm said in a statement.

Once the unit sale has been completed, Teck will own about 1,85 million Fording units, which it has already agreed to sell to an affiliate of Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board, under a separate agreement announced in July.

Based on the current Teck share price, the miner expects that the aggregate net proceeds from the two transactions will amount to some $2,4-billion.

Teck announced in July that it would offer $82,00 in cash and 0,245 of a Teck Cominco class B subordinate share for every Fording unit, in a deal that would make it North America's biggest exporter of metallurgical coal, and the second-largest in the world.

The company announced in late September that it had entered definitive credit agreements for a total of $9,81-billion, which it would put towards the cash portion of the Fording acquisition.

The announcement that the agreements had been concluded for a fully underwritten $4-billion senior term loan facility and a $5,81-billion senior bridge loan facility put to rest earlier speculation that the miner may struggle to raise financing for the deal, because of the crisis in the US financial markets.

Fording owns a 60% stake in the metallurgical coal operations of the Elk Valley Coal partnership, while Teck Cominco owns the remaining 40% of Elk Valley and is the operator of the partnership, as well as holding just under 20% of Fording.

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