Teck's Elkview coal operations
Canadian diversified miner Teck Resources said on Tuesday that it had received several inbound indications of interest regarding various forms of potential transactions involving its steelmaking coal business.
Teck is pursuing a separation of its base metals and steelmaking coal businesses, while fending off a takeover bid from Swiss-headquartered Glencore.
Chairperson Sheila Murray said Teck’s board would appropriately consider and evaluate any proposal that could unlock the potential of the company’s portfolio of assets.
“There is widespread recognition in the market today of the value of our high-margin, long-life steelmaking coal assets, which has, in turn, generated considerable interest from various parties,” said CEO Jonathan Price.
“Our focus on separation is to unlock the full potential of our unparalleled copper growth business and create significant value and opportunity for our shareholders and all stakeholders.”
The Teck board in April had to call off a shareholders meeting to vote on plans to split its metals business from its coal businesses, after failing to win enough investor support.
The Teck board is opposing Glencore’s bid, which initially was for $23-billion in shares, but later included a cash component of up to $8.2-billion to shareholders that would prefer to exit coal. Glencore plans to create two new companies from their combined coal and metals businesses.