By Rebecca Keenan - Jul 8, 2010

Gloucester Coal Ltd. said it’s in talks with largest shareholder Noble Group Ltd. to buy some of its Australian assets and has made no decision on any share sale.

“No agreement has been reached between Gloucester and Noble,” Sydney-based Gloucester said today in a statement, reiterating comments made on June 21.

Gloucester is preparing to sell A$500 million ($438 million) in shares to buy assets from Hong Kong-based Noble, the Australian Financial Review reported today. No decision has been made about any capital raising, Gloucester said in the statement.

Gloucester may buy stakes in the Middlemount and Monto projects, the newspaper reported, without saying where it got the information. Gloucester is being advised by UBS AG and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, it said.

Gloucester declined 1 cent to A$12.42 at 10:42 a.m. Sydney time on the Australian stock exchange. Noble owns 92.5 percent of Gloucester and has made an offer of A$12.60 each for the balance of the shares.