Peabody Energy last week said it has a deal to sell its 5.06% share in the Prairie State Energy Campus to the Wabash Valley Power Association for $57 million, Kallanish Energy reports.
The transaction is the latest in St. Louis, Missouri-based Peabody’s efforts to streamline its portfolio by selling non-core assets, as it moves to focus on its core mining assets in the Powder River and Illinois basins in the U.S., and Australia.
Prairie State is a 1,600-megawatt, coal-fired power plant and adjacent coal mine in Washington, St. Clair and Randolph counties in Illinois, which began operations in 2012.
The transaction is expected to close before June 30. Peabody expects to use transaction proceeds for general corporate purposes and/or deleveraging its balance sheet, and expects to record a “modest,” undisclosed gain related to the sale.
The planned sale of the Prairie State interest, along with other recently announced/enacted transactions, would bring total proceeds from asset sales to nearly $500 million since April 2015.
In the fourth quarter, Peabody agreed to sell its New Mexico and Colorado assets totaling roughly 330 million tons of coal for $358 million in cash to Bowie Resources Partners.
The transaction would bring forward multiple years of cash flows and release the company of roughly $105 million of liabilities, according to Peabody.
The sale closing is expected by April 1.
The company’s planned completion of the sale of the Wilkie Creek Mine and associated assets in Australia’s Surat Basin has been delayed and remains dependent on financing by purchaser Sekitan Resources Pty, Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of clean coal technology company Exergen Pty, Ltd.
