Yanzhou Coal May Acquire Gloucester For $2B -- Bloomberg

Yanzhou Coal

, China's fourth-largest coal company, is reportedly looking to make another splash in Australia and is said to be close acquiring Gloucester coal for $2 billion, Bloomberg News reported, citing a source with knowledge of the matter. Gloucester's largest shareholder, Noble Group, still needs to approve the offer, Bloomberg reported. Yanzhou, which is looking to bolster its Australian footprint, paid about $3 billion in 2009 for Felix Resources, also an Australian company. While coal equities have struggled this year, the sector has seen almost $12 billion worth of mergers and acquisitions in Australia this year. That includes the $4 billion purchase of Macarthur Coal by Peabody Energy

, the largest U.S. coal producer. Yanzhou approved its first debt sale earlier this month at amount of $2.4 billion, Bloomberg reported. The stock is the ninth-largest holding in the Market Vectors Coal ETF

.