A debt-fuelled $4.9 billion buyout of Australia's Macarthur Coal at the peak of the commodities boom five years ago has stretched the world's largest private sector coal company, Peabody Energy, to the brink of bankruptcy.
Peabody admitted last week that it skipped $US71 million ($93 million) in interest payments and was on the verge of becoming the latest coal producer to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States.
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John Kehoe is economics editor at Parliament House, Canberra. He writes on economics, politics and business. John was Washington correspondent covering Donald Trump’s first election. He joined the Financial Review in 2008 from Treasury. Connect with John on Twitter. Email John at jkehoe@afr.com
