Gloucester Coal has confirmed its recommendation to accept Macarthur Coal's takeover bid after an independent expert deemed it fair and reasonable.
The offer, which valued Gloucester at $668.81 million when it was launched in December, is set to turn Macarthur into Australia's largest independent coal producer.
Macarthur last year announced plans to spend $1.2 billion on Gloucester, Noble's other Australian mine assets and some other mine stakes owned by Citic Pacific, a major Macarthur shareholder.
