CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Consol Energy is splitting into two companies — a coal company and a natural gas company.
Consol made the announcement Tuesday that its board of governors gave final approval to the split, which had been announced previously.
Consol, based in Canonsburg, Pa., has been making moves for a couple of years to exit the coal mining industry. It sold five West Virginia mines to Murray Energy in 2013 and paid a Kentucky company $44 million last year to take over its two remaining West Virginia mines.
The company, originally known as Consolidation Coal Company, goes back more than a century, with its start in 1860. As recently as 2010 Consol was the leading producer of high-BTU bituminous coal in the United States and the country’s largest underground coal mining company.
Now the company’s coal arm, which has been known as CoalCo, will be an independent, publicly-traded company and Consol will retain no ownership interest.
The current parent Consol Energy will change its name to CNX Resources Corporation, and will retain its ticker symbol “CNX” on the New York Stock Exchange.
At the same time, CoalCo will change its name to Consol Energy Inc., and its common stock will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “CEIX”.
That company would have ownership of Consol’s three underground mines in Pennsylvania’s Greene and Washington counties known as the Bailey, Harvey and Enlow Fork mines plus other coal-related assets such as its coal export terminal in Baltimore, Md., and reserves.
The deal will culminate Nov. 28 with a stock distribution to divide the companies.
Consol stockholders will receive one share of common stock of CoalCo for every eight shares of Consol common stock held as of the close of business on Nov. 15.
Consol stockholders will retain their shares of company common stock, but because of the name change the shares will represent shares of CNX Resources Corporation after the separation.
In addition, CNX Coal Resources LP will change its name to Consol Coal Resources LP. In connection with the name change, CNX Coal Resources will also change its NYSE ticker symbol to “CCR” from “CNXC”, and its common units will continue to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange.