KNOXVILLE — The largest player in the Cumberlands coal industry is changing hands.
National Coal Corporation announced Tuesday morning that it is being acquired by Ranger Energy Investments, LLC.
Ranger Energy is controlled by Jim Justice, a major player in the coal mining industries of Kentucky and West Virginia.
The sale, which is expected to close in mid-December, represents the final chapter for the cash-strapped National Coal Corp., which in April had sold most of its assets in the New River tract to Justice’s firm, including a coal preparation plant at Devonia and the former Tennessee Railroad line, which NCC had purchased from Norfolk-Southern.
Ranger Energy will pay $1 per share for National Coal’s common stock, which represents a 54% premium to NCC’s Monday closing price of 65 cents per share.
“I am pleased that we were able to reach an agreement with Ranger Energy that delivers a substantial premium and fair value to our shareholders,” NCC President and CEO Daniel A. Roling said.
NCC will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Ranger Energy once the sale closes in December.
Justice is a past president and CEO of Bluestone Industries, a major player in West Virginia coal operations. Bluestone sold to Mechel, a Russian steel company, last year for $346 million. Justice continues to own considerable coal operations in Kentucky. He also owns Justice Family Farms, a 50,000-acre operation in the Virginias and Carolinas that is described as the East Coast’s largest cash grain operation.
In 2003, Justice formed James C. Justice Companies Inc. to acquire mining operations.
