New Hope Corp pushes for sale of Bridgeport oil and gas assets
The $3.2 billion coal miner is also eyeing a full takeover of privately-owned Malabar Resources that could be worth around $1.1 billion.
Coal miner New Hope (ASX: NHC) is pushing to find a buyer for its Bridgeport Energy oil and gas assets on expectations it could raise between $50 million and $70 million from the sale.
Market sources said New Hope has recently appointed Perth-based corporate advisers Miro Capital to accelerate Bridgeport's sale process.
The energy group's assets include Queensland's famous Moonie Oil Field, among 850 square kilometres of oil acreage across the Cooper-Eromanga Basin in Queensland and South Australia.
New Hope has long retained investment bank Jefferies as a corporate adviser and is also tipped to launch a takeover bid worth an estimated $1.1 billion for privately-owned New South Wales-based coal miner Malabar Resources later this year.
New Hope already owns 19.9% of Malabar and cash proceeds from the Bridgeport sale could help it fund a tilt at its assets that include high-grade metallurgical coal reserves of 1.4 billion tonnes. New Hope did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Coal prices reverse
In March, coal prices slumped to near four-year lows around $US100 a tonne to extend a bear market of more than two years after the Ukraine war and European energy shortages triggered a price super-cycle in 2022.
New Hope now offers a massive trailing dividend yield of 10.3% plus franking credits after shares dropped 15.7% over the past 12 months to $3.76 on Friday, although the falling coal price means it may struggle to match last year's total dividends of 39 cents per share.
Elsewhere Whitehaven Coal (ASX: WHC) is down 13.7% in 12 months and Yancoal (ASX: YAL) is flat over the same period as sources suggest soft coal prices could see more merger and acquisition activity ahead.
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Tom covered markets as a Markets Reporter & Commentator at the Australian Financial Review for nearly five years. Prior to that he was the Managing Editor of The Motley Fool Australia leading a team of around 20 investment writers during a five-year period of massive online growth. Before that Tom worked in equities management at the Bank of New York Mellon in London and as a holder of professional investment qualification the Investment Management Certificate is eligible for membership of the CFA Society of the UK.
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Tom covered markets as a Markets Reporter & Commentator at the Australian Financial Review for nearly five years. Prior to that he was the Managing Editor of The Motley Fool Australia leading a team of around 20 investment writers during a...
Tom covered markets as a Markets Reporter & Commentator at the Australian Financial Review for nearly five years. Prior to that he was the Managing Editor of The Motley Fool Australia leading a team of around 20 investment writers during a...
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