UK Coal completes restructure to become Coalfield Resources
Producer UK Coal said this morning it had completed a restructuring of the business to create two divisions and rename the firm Coalfield Resources.
Two separate businesses comprising the mining division and the property division have been created, called Mine Holdings and Harworth Estates respectively.
Control of the mining division has passed to a newly-established Employee Benefit Trust, which holds 67 per cent of voting shares.
Under the restructuring, the company owns 24.9 per cent of Harworth Estates, while the remainder has passed to pension funds in return for a £30m cash injection and their support for the mines.
Chairman Jonson Cox said this morning that the restructuring was of “unprecedented scale and complexity” for a company of this size.
He added: “Without it, it was almost certain that the coal mines would have been unable to trade beyond the first quarter of 2013.”
Cox said that the restructuring has helped to safeguard 2,500 jobs.