Macquarie Buy Back; Arrow Acquires Beach

123jump.com Staff
03 Apr, 2009
New York City

Arrow acquires Beach Petroleum

[R]3:00AM New York, 7:00PM Sydney- Arrow acquires Beach Petroleum’s 40% stake in Tipton West for as much as A$400 million. Work ombudsman probes BHP Billiton’s 1,800 job cut.[/R]

Australian stocks advanced 1.5% leveraged by expectations that the domestic economy will rebound. Gains were however pared by weak gold prices.

In Sydney trading ASX 200 index gained 1.5% or 55.4 to 3,735.60.

Of the ASX 200 index stocks, 114 gained, 72 declined, and 15 were unchanged. Minara Resources led advancers in the index shares with a rise of 35.6% followed by Bradken increasing 22.4%.

Arrow Acquires Stake in Tipton West

Arrow Energy reported today that is has purchased Beach Petroleum’s 40% stake in Tipton West joint venture coal seam gas project and the surrounding exploration acreage.

The acquisition includes Beach’s current interests in tenements covering 5,105 square kilometres and will be affected by Arrow purchasing 100% of the shares of Beach Petroleum (Surat) Pvt Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Beach.

In addition, the deal comprised of A$260 million payable on completion, A$70 million worth of Arrow shares issued on completion and up to A$40 million for booking of additional reserves.

The A$15 million will be paid upon gas owned by Arrow supplying any LNG project no later than December 31, 2016, and A$15 million upon any LNG project producing an annualized equivalent of 1 million tons per annum of LNG using gas supplied from Arrow’s upstream tenements no later than December 31, 2017.

Arrow chief executive officer Shaun Scott said the acquisition will enhance the company’s reserve position and streamlines its ability to execute its coal-seam gas to liquid natural gas strategy.

""The upfront cash component of the acquisition consideration will largely be funded from proceeds from the recent sale of our stake in Pure Energy and a substantial portion of the contingent payments will be triggered at the same time as the additional milestones are due under our current agreements with Shell,"" said Scott.

Ombudsman Probes BHP Job Cut

The West Australian reported today that the Workplace Ombudsman is probing the job losses of 1,800 at BHP Billiton’s Ravensthorpe nickel mine in Western Australia.

BHP is alleged to have breached the Workplace Relations Act over the elimination of the staff at a meeting on January 21.

According to Ombudsman''s WA director Leigh Quealy, initial results of a survey provided to around 700 of the former employees indicate workers were not given the correct notice as workers were called in for a ""safety meeting"" before being told the mine was to close.

Macquarie Bank Offers to Buy back Bonds at 50% Discount

Macquarie Bank Ltd. has offered the holders of subordinated bonds at a price as low as 50 cents and no more than 60 cents on the dollar plus the accrued interests. The notes are maturing on September 2015.

Gainers & Losers

Minara Resources led gainers in the ASX 200 index shares with a rise of 35.6% followed by gains in Bradken of 22.4%, in Mount Gibson Iron of 21%, in Alesco Corp. of 17.2%, and in Onesteel Ltd. of 16.5%.

Babcock & Brown led decliners in the ASX 200 index shares with a fall of 14% followed by losses in Lihir Gold of 8.6%, in Newscrest Mining of 7.3%, in Linc Energy of 7.1%, and Goodman Group of 7.1%.