News: NHC UPDATE 1-Australia's Aurizon in talks to buy debt-saddled coal port

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Nov 13 (Reuters) - Australian coal rail operator Aurizon Holdings (AZJ) said on Monday it was in talks to buy the Wiggins Island Coal Export Terminal (WICET) in Queensland, which urgently needs to restructure $3 billion in debt.

The company said it was in preliminary discussions with undisclosed parties for the potential restructuring of WICET, which would also involve other consortium members acquiring one or more of the coal mines that use the port.

Aurizon declined to confirm a report in the Australian Financial Review that said it was working with Macquarie Group (MQG) on the WICET deal, which could see Macquarie acquire at least two of the mines that use the port.

A Macquarie spokesman was not immediately available to comment.

WICET was a boom-time port plan at Gladstone agreed in 2009 to service a consortium of eight coal producers, led by mining giant Glencore . However, since then three of the producers have folded as coal prices collapsed.

Under the WICET agreement, the remaining five partners - Glencore, Wesfarmers (WES), New Hope Corp (NHC), China's Yancoal Australia Ltd (YAL) and Baosteel arm Aquila Resources - have to shoulder all of the port's debt and port fees for 27 million tonnes a year.

If the Aurizon-led deal goes ahead, it would relieve Glencore and its partners from having to repay part of $3 billion owed on WICET by September 2018.

The deal could involve Macquarie taking over Glencore's Rolleston mine and Wesfarmers' Curragh mine, both of which use WICET and are up for sale, a person familiar with the situation said.

The source declined to be named as talks are confidential.