Partner Article

Hargreaves reaffirms merger plans

NORTH East industrial giant Hargreaves Services has confirmed that it is still committed to merger plans with UK Coal, which this week reported annual losses.

The Durham-headquartered energy support services company issued a statement to the market outlining delays to the start of the due diligence process.

The company said: “Consequently, discussions remain at a very preliminary stage and there is no certainty that any transaction will result. Hargreaves remains committed to progress discussions with minimum further delay.”

In the last month shares in UK Coal have risen 14% after it confirmed it was merger talks with Hargreaves Services.

A decline in fourth quarter production and a subdued market price for coal hit full year results at UK Coal.

Loss before tax widened to £129.1m for the year ended 26 December 2009 from £15.6m in 2008, while revenue fell to £316.0m during the period from £392.5m the year before.

Chairman David Jones said: “Our financial results for last year have been substantially affected by geological issues in each of our deep mines, which significantly reduced production volumes and did so against the background of a subdued market price for coal in Europe.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .