India’s Adani eyes Australia’s coal reserves

SYDNEY - India’s Adani Group Ltd is set to announce it has bought a coal tenement in Queensland’s Galilee Basis from Australia’s Linc Energy Ltd, news reports said Monday.

The deal could be worth more than 1 billion Australian dollars ($900 million) and be the first time an Indian company has bought a coal seam rather than invested in a coal mining company.

Adani is India’s largest coal importer and a key player in India’s plans to double power generation over the coming decade. There are 28 coal-fired plants under construction and another 28 on the drawing board.

The bid would be from subsidiary Adani Enterprises and is expected to be signed Tuesday, The Australian newspaper reported.

The value of shares in Linc has risen nearly 60 percent since the start of July in anticipation of the sale of three Queensland coal assets.

Earlier this year Adani raised $765 million on the Mumbai stock exchange in what was the largest share sale to institutional investors by an Indian company this year.

Linc’s primary business is coal seam gas.