Jastrzębska Spółka Węglowa (JSW), one of Europe’s largest coking coal miners, has signed an agreement to purchase a 95% stake in shaft sinking company Przedsiębiorstwo Budowy Szybów (PBS) from the Kopex Group.

The agreement covering the basic terms of the PLN 205.3 million transaction was signed on July 17 by JSW and Kopex representatives. Kopex was recently acquired by the FAMUR Group, which has a strong relationship with JSW.

Bartosz Bielak, Vice President of Kopex, said the sale had been on the cards since the TDJ Group, the parent compant of FAMUR, agreed to takeover Kopex and restructure the group back in December 2016.

“[The transaction] will allow us to focus on improving the operational model and implementing the new development strategy of the FAMUR Group,” he said (translated from Polish).

PBS’s main business is tied to shaft sinking, but it also offers construction, architectural and engineering services, in addition to rental, installation and repair of machinery and equipment for mining, quarrying and construction.

According to its website, it has carried out 132,300 m of shaft sinking, including 35,000 m in hard coal mines and 67,000m in ore mines.

The transaction is subject to obtaining merger clearance from the Polish Office of Competition and Consumer Protection, “release of encumbrances on PBS assets and on the shares to be sold in the transaction,…conclusion of satisfactory agreements with the trade unions of PBS and the two largest trading partners of PBS (Tauron Wydobycie SA and KGHM Polska Miedź SA) in order to confirm the status of the contracts, and obtaining of JSW bondholders’ consent and corporate approvals”.