Citic accepts $5 bln Peabody offer for Australia's Macarthur

A man walks next to handling and processing equipment at Macarthur Coal's Coppabella mine, about 760km (472 miles) northwest of Brisbane, in this undated handout photograph made available July 12, 2011.

REUTERS - China's Citic Resources has accepted Peabody Energy and ArcelorMittal's A$4.9 billion ($5 billion) takeover offer for Australia's Macarthur Coal, taking the bid to the brink of success, the companies said on Friday.

Peabody and ArcelorMittal said they will control more than 49 percent of Macarthur with the acceptance from Citic, Macarthur's top shareholder, and intend to declare the offer unconditional on obtaining 50.01 percent.

The offer price of A$16.00 per share will increase to A$16.25 per share if 90 percent threshold reached.

Citic and its subsidiary Citic Resources Holdings held a combined 25.2 percent stake in MacArthur.

Sources told Reuters last month Citic was still weighing up its options but wanted a higher offer price for its stake after Anglo American walked away from advanced talks to launch a counterbid.

A successful deal would be the latest in a slew of coal deals in Australia, with Chinese, Indian and global firms snapping up mines best positioned to feed booming demand from Asian steel mills.

Top U.S. coal miner Peabody and ArcelorMittal raised their offer for the world's biggest producer of pulverized coal by 3 percent in August, winning over the Macarthur board, which had been holding out for A$18 a share.

MacArthur, 7 percent owned by South Korea's top steel maker POSCO, closed on Thursday at A$16.08. ($1 = 0.981 Australian Dollars)

(Reporting by Lincoln Feast; Editing by Ed Davies)