Shares in Felix Resources Ltd. and Yanzhou Coal Mining Co. were placed on trading halts Monday, implying that both parties have reached an agreement on the takeover deal, the Oriental Morning Post reported August 11.

Brisbane-based Felix said in its announcement that a potential change of control transaction is in talks. Yanzhou said in a statement that it had halted trading of its Hong Kong-listed shares in relation to a proposed acquisition. Neither party offered more details.

It is said that Yanzhou's offer is pitched between 20-25 Australian dollars (US$16.67-US$20.83) a share, with the acquisition amounting to more than 3 billion Australian dollars (US$2.45billion). Felix shares was last traded at A$16.90 (US$14.09) in Sydney, giving the company a market capitalization of about A$3.32 billion (US$2.76 billion).The acquisition premium rate for Yanzhou is more than 18 percent.

The deal will be evaluated by Australia's Foreign Investment Review Board.

Yanzhou Coal Mining Co. is China's third largest coal enterprise, next to China Shenhua and China Coal Energy.

For more information, please consult the Chinese coverage here:

http://www.dfdaily.com/node2/node27/node120/userobject1ai183638.shtml

(China.org.cn by Fan Junmei August 11, 2009)