Huge take-over deal by BHP

Press, 31 January 1983, Page 21

Huge take-over deal by BHP

General Electric Company announced on Friday that it has signed a letter of intent to sell Utah International Inc. and Utah-Marcona Corporation to Broken Hill Proprietary Companv. Ltd. for about' SUS246O 'million (SNZ33OO million) in cash.

BHP, Australia’s largest industrial corporation, plans to form a consortium of Australian coal properties included in the acquisition. GE and BHP said in a statement.

Utah is a leading producer of metallurgical coal in Australia and has mining operations in iron ore, copper, and steam coal in North and South America and elsewhere. It was acquired bv GE in 1976. The businesses to be sold had preliminary net earnings of $247 million and revenues of $l3OO million in 1982. Under the terms of the proposed sale. GE would retain Ladd Petroleum Corp., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Utah, as well as Utah's financial interests in the Pathfinder uranium mines in Wyom-

ing and the Trapper steam-coal mine in Colorado, according to the statement. Completion of the transaction is contingent on negotiation of a definitive agreement. approvals by the GE and BHP boards ofdirectors. completion of consortium and financing arrangements by BHP. and government approvals, the companies said. BHP. based in Melbourne, has interests in mining, minerals processing, steelmaking. oil and natural gas production. and manufacturing. GE is a diversified manufacturing and services company with preliminary unaudited net earnings of $lB2O million and sales of $26,500 million in 1982. Mr Ralph Long, a senior vice-president of the Utah Development Company, outlined projects currently owned by Utah International. Speaking in Sydney, Mr Long said one of the major projects owned by Utah International was a 50 per cent share, with Getty Oil, in one of the world's largest de-

posits of high-grade copper, in Chile. Mr Long said the first drill tests were taken in March. 1981. Among major projects already under way were "fairly extensive" steaming coal operations in Kentucky, on the east coast of the United States. Also on the east coast, in Florida, were operations for the dredging of lightweight aggregate for cement and glass companies. Mr Long said on the west coast of the U.S., large steaming coal projects were underway in New Mexico. Operations at Colorado on the west coast were not included in the take-over by BHP because they were already being sold. Utah International also had copper mining operations in British Columbia, Canada, Mr Long said. A tungsten mine in Nevada was also owned by Utah but this had been closed because of depressed demand, Mr Long said.