Atlantic Coal pays $2.1m to clear General Electric Capital loan

Pennsylvania-based coal miner Atlantic Coal has agreed to make an upfront cash payment of $2.1m to Mayford for the interest and penalty interest accrued on a loan note, which was initially issued to General Electric Capital Corp (GECC). This deal will discharge in full all of Atlantic Coal's liabilities and obligations due under the note and Mayford will release its charges over Atlantic group's assets, once it has received the payment. The note was secured, among other things, on all anthracite coal to be extracted from Atlantic Coal's Stockton mine.The repayments to the loan note which Mayford had bought the note from GECC for $1.5m, were not made since 2009 and had attracted an 18% interest rate. Following the actions to strengthen its cash position and restructure its balance sheet, Atlantic Coal said the production outlook at the Stockton Colliery for 2011 remains positive and will now focus on boosting production."The market conditions within the high quality coal industry are very conducive for growth, with strong local and international demand for our product, particularly from the steel industries in China and India. This adds further incentive for increasing our resource base and to this end we continue to evaluate additional synergistic opportunities in Pennsylvania to consolidate our mining operations," Atlantic Coal said.AR