Laserfiche WebLink
Waning coal demand saps miner's stock. <br />Peabody looks forward "to a successful completion of the planned sale of assets to Bowie," said Vic Svec, a <br />spokesman for the St. Louis -based company. Brian Settles, a representative for Bowie Resource, didn't <br />respond to requests for comment. <br />Blackstone Funding <br />Peabody needs "as much cash as possible at this point," Kristoffer Inton, a Chicago -based analyst at <br />Morningstar Investment Services Inc., said in a phone interview. The company's shares have lost almost all <br />of their value in the past year, dropping from $118.95 to $2.04 on Friday. <br />A Bowie Resource subsidiary agreed to use its "reasonable best efforts" to arrange and obtain a sufficient <br />amount of debt and equity financing to close the transaction announced on Nov. 20, according to a Peabody <br />filing. Jittery debt -market investors have shunned risky deals in recent months as commodities prices <br />continued to plunge and concerns intensified about slowing global growth. <br />Under the terms of the acquisition, Louisville, Kentucky -based Bowie Resource will have to pay Peabody a <br />$20 million fee if the deal can't be done because of the buyer's failure to obtain sufficient funding, <br />according to a company filing. <br />When the deal was announced in November, Bowie Resource disclosed that it had already secured equity <br />funding commitments for the transaction, without saying who was providing it. According to the people <br />familiar with the deal, that was to be Blackstone Group. <br />Blackstone's Paula Chirhart declined to comment. <br />In the Nov 20 statement, Peabody said it anticipated the deal would close before the end of this quarter. <br />