Coalfield to buy Harworth from miners’ pension fund

Coalfield Resources has agreed to pay the pension fund for its former mining companies £150m to buy the 75.1% it does not already own in property developer Harworth Estates.

The payment will be made through a combination of new shares and £97m in cash.

Harworth Estates is developing the Logistics North diswtribution and manufacturing park at the former opencast mine in Cutacre, Bolton. The developer also has sites in the East Midlands and Yorkshire. In total, Harworth has 27,000 acres across some 200 sites, valued at approximately £298.5m with net assets of £248.6m.

The largest shareholder in Coalfield Resources, formerly known as UK Coal, is Goodweather Holdings, part of Peel Group, with 33%.

Coalfield Resources proposes to change its name to Harworth Group once the deal with the pension fund completes.

Shares in the company were flat at 5p.