Bloomberg reported that Optimum Coal Holdings Limited, the target of a potential takeover by Glencore International Plc, closed unchanged in Johannesburg trading after earlier dropping the most in 10 weeks as output declined.

Optimum closed at ZAR 37 after earlier falling as much as 5.4%, the biggest intraday decline since November 16th 2011. The company produced 7.44 million tonnes of coal in the six months through December 2011, 15% lower than a year earlier.

Mr Mike Teke CEO of Optimum Coal Holdings said that the company, which runs Optimum Collieries, South Africa's third largest opencast mine, suffered three industrial action events at the site in the period. Output was also affected by the transfer of excavation equipment to the Kwagga North section of the operation, which curtailed output elsewhere.

Optimum may get a takeover bid from its largest shareholder Glencore, the Johannesburg based company said in November 2011. Glencore's Piruto unit and Lexshell 849 Investments, owned by South African businessman Cyril Ramaphosa, will offer at least ZAR 38 a share as soon as they win antitrust approval for stakes already acquired. Piruto and Lexshell have bought or agreed to buy 65.14% of Optimum.

Buying Optimum will expand Glencore's South African energy coal production. The assets also include Koornfontein Mines, on the Witbank coal field in Mpumalanga province, and an allocation to ship 8.44 million tonnes of coal a year through the Richards Bay terminal, South Africa's main coal export harbor.

(Sourced from www.bloomberg.net)