Buyer sought following Powerfuel coal plant administration

Accounting firm KPMG has been called in to act as administrator for Powerfuel, the owner of Hatfield Colliery.

Unable to raise the £635 million needed to fund the construction of the country’s first clean coal plant, the firm has fallen into administration.

KPMG is hoping to find a buyer quickly in order to safeguard jobs and allow the clean coal project to move forward. Currently, the mine – which employs 300 staff – and the clean coal scheme are still operating as normal.

Jointly owned by British mining entrepreneur Richard Budge and Mikhail Abyzov, head of KRU, Russia’s second biggest coal company, Powerfuel has been struggling to raise the necessary funds for some time.

Just last year, it ploughed £164 million of EU funding into carbon capture work at its site near Doncaster. However, the extra money needed to complete the plant could not be found and KRU, which bought 51 per cent of the firm in 2006, was unable to fund the venture further.

Joint administrator at KPMG, Richard Fleming, said, “The central goal of the administration is to sell the share capital of the mining and carbon capture and storage (CCS) development project which sits in Powerfuel, the parent company. The day-to-day business of both Powerfuel Mining and Powerfuel Power will not be affected by the sales process.

“The administration will enable a sales process to find a new owner, who can both take the CCS project forward and buttress the mine, which also requires around £30m of capital expenditure for works improvements,” he added.

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