NEWSMAKER-Australia's "Coal King" sells at the top
By James Regan
SYDNEY, July 6 (Reuters) - Owning bars and restaurants as a hobby may have taught Australian mining magnate Ken "King Coal" Talbot something about getting out at the top of the market.
Talbot has been not so quietly selling for a premium most of his 20 percent stake in Macarthur Coal (MCC.AX), the company he founded in 1996, pocketing more than half a billion dollars and igniting talk of a takeover fight between Macarthur's largest shareholders.
Talbot, the former chief executive, resigned last week from the Macarthur board to mitigate any conflicts of interest relating to his decision to sell out.
Talbot sold his shares to steel giants Arcellor Mittal (ISPA.AS) which now holds 19.9 percent of Macarthur's stock, POSCO (005490.KS) which has 10 percent, and Chinese investment group Citic Resource Holdings (1205.HK) with 17.7 percent.
In the process Talbot has become one of Australia's wealthiest individuals, doubling his net worth to more than A$1.4 billion ($1.3 billion).
The son of a truck driver, Talbot recently told a group of financial analysts and journalists he never dreamed he'd be rich.
For a while the easy-going Talbot was known affectionately around outback mining camps as "swami" after ordering workers at his collieries to practice yoga.
He once sponsored an all-women's rugby team and still faces criminal charges dating back to 2002 for allegedly lending A$300,000 to a government minister so the minister's children could buy houses. Talbot denies doing anything wrong.
An early supporter of aboriginal land rights over mining sites, he's also a long-time admirer of U.S. General Douglas Macarthur, the namesake not only of his former company but of a bar and restaurant he established in a disused wool store in Brisbane.
As his coal mines grew, so did the number of his restaurants.
"Ken has been very clear that his interests are broad and extend well outside of Macarthur," said Talbot's longtime spokesman, Brian Thornton.
Talbot was sailing in the Mediterranean without a mobile phone and unavailable for comment, according to Thornton.
Despite black eyes from environmentalists, the global market for coal has never been better, with prices doubling in the last year alone thanks to strong demand in Asia, where Talbot started forging business relationships more than a decade ago.
He was one of the first business executives to establish links with companies in China in the 1990s, just before China's modern-day industrial revolution went into high gear.
Analysts believe the coal market should remain strong as long as China and other Asian countries keep growing but can't say when the cycle might turn down.
"If you are going to sell an interest in a coal company, now's the time to do it ," Macarthur's chairman, Keith De Lacy, told Reuters recently.
Talbot still retains 4.7 percent of Macarthur's shares, though few believe he will hold on to them for long.
($1=A$1.04) (Reporting by James Regan; Editing by Jerry Norton)
