It is reported that thermal coal miner and exporter Ambre Energy is running a beauty parade of advisors for an initial public offering on the Australian Securities Exchange slated for May or June of 2012.

Mr Edek Choros chief executive of Ambre said the company market capitalization is expected to be between AUD 800 million and AUD 1 billion, but the equity raising will be below AUD 100 million due to significant investments from cornerstone investors including Resource Capital Funds.

Mr Choros who expects to name advisers by the end of January said there had been a good response to the company’s pre IPO fundraising efforts with interests from end users including Asian power utility companies.

He said that "We’re essentially debt-free, so we have significant capacity to use project finance in the future, noting that the company has more than 400 shareholders.”

Ambre is headquartered in Brisbane but has a US head office in Utah. The company has an asset in Australia but many more in the US from which it hopes to export thermal coal to Asia and Europe. Thermal coal is used as an energy source in countries like China and India.

(Sourced from www.theaustralian.com.au)