PRIVATE SECTOR coal bosses obviously don't believe the Tory hype that British Coal is 'unprofitable'. They openly boast they can't wait to snap up the world's fourth largest mining con cern at 'off the back of a lorry prices.
Chrispian Hotson, chief ex ecutive of Britain's largest private coal producer Ryan Group, speltitout straight in an interview with UK Coal Review magazine last May.
The UK is the only country in Europe with a long-term competitive coal industry. Production may decline in transition, but by 1996 it will rise.
just get my wallet. I EC Europe (including Britain): ¡ 1 year's subscription (24 issues): £15 • ¡ Six months' subscription (12 issues): £8 D ' Non-EC Europe: 1 year £20 • Six months £11 O ¡ Rest of the World: 1 year £24 C Six months £13 O " I include a donation of £ , Name I Address Send to Socialist Outlook, PO Box 1109, London N4 2UU PULL OUT Page IV This increased output will not necessarily be sold to the UK power stations because of the distortion of their privatisation, but sold into Europe.
'If the industry establishes itself on a world price basis then by definition this coal can be sold into Europe. By this stage the UK would be the envy of her European partners!
Ryan is scheduled to produce 6.35 million tonnes of coal in the UK in 1992, and has limited operations in the USA, Belgium and Poland.
Earlier this year it took a £50 million venture capital injection and fixed up a £65 million loan facility. It is now virtually certain to bid for some of British Coal's opencasting operations Subscription Rates and possibly Betws deep mine in south Wales.
Using industry sources, Socialist Outlook has compiled a list of companies that are likely to want in on the great coal - was specially formed earlier this year in the hope of getting its snout in the Tory trough.
Brothers
Last February, Richard Budge bought the mining operations of the family's A.F.Budge construction giant from his brother Tony for either £102 million or £106.5 million (reports vary) of largely borrowed money.
Budge produced 3.6 million tonnes of coal in 1990/91, acting as an opencasting contractor on around nine British Coal sites.
Richard's timing was no coincidence. Construction News quoted a spokesperson as saying Budge Mining was 'well-placed to take advantage of any liberalisation in the coal industry which may occur ir the next few years' Budge has now offered to buy 'a substantial number of the 31 pits set for closure.
These are only the little boys. There will be interest from For sale - bargain prices Heseltine's madhouse economics don't fool bosses several key multinationals too.
Shell is said to be keeping a close eye on the situation. But it already has a strong position in international coal trading and selling gas, and may feel these activities are incompatible with coal production.
RTZ has extensive minerals mining operations worldwide, but is taken up with plans to move into Siberia as the former Soviet Union opens itself up to capitalism.
Division two
UK construction company Costain is a division two player among world coal producer, but has been badly hit by the deep slump in its core industry.
British Petroleum does have coal interests, but is seemingly desperate to divest to meet some of its £8,000 million debts.
This leaves Hanson Trust, into mining in a big way through two subsidiaries, South Africa's Consolidated Goldfields and world number five coalmining operation Peabody of the US, which is only slightly smaller than British Coal.
Labour MP Glenda Jackson -a member of the Commons committee which considered the coal privatisation bill - starred in Hanson TV adverts in her previous career as an actress. Nice work if you can get it.
Asset stripping
Hanson specialises in buying companies cheap, keeping the best bits and selling off the rest for more than it paid for the package in the first place.
Among those after the crumbs could be Coalite producers Anglo United. Anglo held talks with the Department of Energy before was abolished with a view to buying British Coal in its entirety, but now says it will be too small to bother with.
Anglo will nevertheless be extremely interested in two British Coal subsidiaries, smokeless fuel producer Coal Products and distribution network National Fuel Distributors. A bid for NFD would be a case for the Monopolies and Mergers Commission.
The other option is a management buy out. Butas depression turns to slump, merchant banks are not so slap happy as in the heady days of the late eighties. Speculation persists that British Coal's existing bosses will use massive coal pension fund surpluses to mount a bid.
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