GCC is being acquired by 1629835 Alberta, a company developed by the Winsway-Marubeni joint venture buyers, for $C1 billion.

Winsway now has all approvals in hand to complete the transaction and has set a February 28 shareholder meeting to seek approval.

GCC said it agreed to extend the outside closing date for Winsway’s buyout from February 28 to March 6 to provide sufficient time to complete the arrangement following the Winsway meeting.

Assuming there are no issues with the final approval, the companies anticipate closing on or before March 6.

Last week, GCC and 1629835 Alberta received approval from the Canadian Minister of Industry, under the country’s Investment Canada Act and obtained the okay of both GCC shareholders and the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta in January.

In October, the Alberta-headquartered company said its cash takeover deal worked out to $10 per common share, a 70% premium over the closing price on October 28 and a 112% premium over the 20-day volume weighted average trading price on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

“We believe the arrangement is a compelling transaction for Grande Cache Coal's shareholders and recognizes our highly attractive mining operation and the exceptional team that we have assembled at Grande Cache Coal,” president and chief executive officer Robert Stan said at the time.

“In addition, Marubeni has had a long-standing business relationship with the corporation and has a 40-year history with the corporation's mine.

“Furthermore, Winsway is one of our main customers for the Chinese market.”

GCC holds coal leases covering more than 22,000 hectares with an estimated 346 million tonnes of coal resources in the Smoky River coalfield in Canada.

Its underground mining activity currently includes the No 7 area and the No 12 South B2 underground area.