Liam Denning, Columnist

There’s No Promised Land for Coal, in Australia or America

Peabody might calm investors if it sold its most profitable mines, but the outlook for its business is grim.

February 6, 2020 at 5:06 PM UTC

Liam Denning is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering energy. A former banker, he edited the Wall Street Journal’s Heard on the Street column and wrote the Financial Times’s Lex column.

In the dumps.
Photographer: Bloomberg/Bloomberg

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There was a time when Australia was the promised land for America’s coal giants. Faced with the decline of coal-fired power and steel-making at home, U.S. miners bought their way into Australian resources situated helpfully on China’s doorstep.

Ultimately, it wasn’t enough to stave off bankruptcy. Having emerged from chapter 11 a few years ago, Peabody Energy Corp. finds its Australian business simultaneously a blessing, curse and — following a new agreement with its biggest shareholder, the ever-warm-and-fuzzy Elliott Management Corp. — potential Hail Mary.