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Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Australia Whitehaven bids due Wednesday, some suitors drop out -sources

Australia's Whitehaven Coal expects to receive non-binding offers from Chinese, Indian and Korean parties but several potential suitors have dropped out of the process as bidders raise concern about price, sources said on Wednesday. Indicative bids for Whitehaven which put itself up for auction in October, were due on Wednesday, the sources said. Whitehaven is valued at about $3.5 billion at current share prices. However, China's Yanzhou Coal Mining Co and major shareholder Alpha Natural Resources were not expected to lodge bids, two sources familiar with the matter said. Whitehaven declined to comment.

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