Regional: Peabody completes acquisition of Macarthur Coal

US coal mining giant Peabody Energy has completed acquisition of 100 percent shares of Macarthur Coal Limited, notifying Australian Securities Exchange to delist Macarthur -- Australia-listed world?s largest producer low volatile pulverized coal injection (LV PCI).

"The Macarthur purchase advances Peabody 's strategy of expanding our global platform to serve major global demand centers and raising our contribution from higher-margin international assets," Peabody Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Gregory H. Boyce said.

"Our focus now is on driving integration and operations improvement and completing expansion projects."

Peabody's pro forma Australia sales including acquisition volumes were 32 million tonnes in 2010 and expected to grow to 45 to 50 million tonnes by 2014 to 2015, including 22 to 25 million tonnes of metallurgical coal.

Peabody Energy, the world's largest private-sector coal company and a global leader in clean coal solutions, fuels about 10 percent of US power and 2 percent of worldwide electricity. (romel)