Coal terminal developer Ambre delays IPO

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A delayed public offering in Australia may have an impact on coal export facility plans in the Northwest.

Ambre Energy, the coal company planning to build a coal export facility along the Columbia River, said Friday it would delay its planned initial public offering of stock.

Ambre, which had planned to go public on the Australian Securities Exchange in June, will delay the offering until the market shows better promise, CEO Edek Choros told the Wall Street Journal Friday.

The offering was predicted to be one of the largest in Australia with a valuation just shy of $1 billion.

Ambre is aggressively pursuing plans to build the Morrow Pacific coal export facility, a development estimated to bring $400 million in economic activity to the region, but one that is heavily opposed by environmental groups and some of the communities that will be impacted by increased rail traffic.

Morrow Pacific would transport coal by rail from the Powder River Basin to the Port of Morrow near Boardman and transfer it to covered barges. The barges would then ship the coal down the Columbia River to the Port of St. Helens where it would be loaded onto an ocean vessel.

Ambre is also an investor in a separate coal facility planned for Longview, Wash.

It wasn't immediately clear whether the delayed IPO would impact plans for the $250 million project. The company had planned to begin construction before the end of the year.