OREANDA-NEWS. Arch Coal ended its attempt to exchange up to $2.875bn in debt after concluding it would not be able to get enough support from noteholders.

The company also ended the support agreement it had signed with 57pc of noteholders who had not been eligible for the exchange.

The company is "in active dialogue" with creditors on restructuring its balance sheet, it said. Mining and shipping operations are continuing as normal.

Arch had been trying since 2 July to exchange notes due in 2019-21 for a smaller amount of new debt and cash that would be due in 2022-23. But a group of 50 lenders claiming to own more than half of Arch's first-lien-term loans had directed its administrative agent to withhold their consent from the exchange. A New York judge, on 16 October, declined one fund's request to stop the objecting Arch lenders from making further moves against the company's proposed debt exchange.

As a result of the objecting lenders' position, "the status of pending litigation, current market conditions and various other factors, Arch has concluded that the conditions to the exchange offer have not and will not be satisfied, and that the offers will not be consummated," Arch said.