Richard Budge
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Richard John Budge (born 1947, Boston, Lincolnshire) is the CEO of Powerfuel.
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[edit] Early life
He went to Boston Grammar School in Lincolnshire. He entered the mining industry when he joined the company of Retford-based (on West Carr Road) AF Budge, owned by his brother Tony, which ran opencast mines. It was also involved in civil engineering schemes such as building the new £3.2m A638 Redhouse interchange on the A1(M) north of Doncaster in 1979; junctions 4-6 of the A1(M) in 1973; and junctions 1-3 of the M621 in 1975; the M181 and a section of the M180 near Scunthorpe in 1978. The company also sponsored the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 1988. It went into receivership in January 1993, and into liquidation on February 24 1993 with debts of £112m. His brother Tony was banned from all company directorships in 1996 for seven years. He owned racing cars, including a Chevron B19. In one of these, he won the Oulton Park International Gold Cup in 1983.
[edit] Career
[edit] RJB Mining
When the UK coal industry was privatised in 1994, Budge bought most of the pits for £815m, forming RJB Mining, which he had started in 1992 after buying his brother's opencast business division for £102.5m. This led to Budge being christened King Coal. When the Labour government came to power, Budge informed the government that ten pits would have to close unless he secured long-term contracts from the electricity generators National Power and Powergen (now called E.ON UK). In 2000, he attempted to sell off its pits to the American Renco Group.
On July 14 2001, he quit as CEO of RJB Mining. It became known as UK Coal.
[edit] Coalpower
He formed the company, Coalpower, in 2001. It bought the Hatfield Colliery, at Stainforth, in April 2004 from Hatfield Coal Company, helped by £7m of state aid. In late 2003, Coalpower went into administration.
[edit] Powerfuel
His company, Powerfuel, is 48% owned by Budge and 52% owned by KRU, Russia's second biggest coal company. In April 2007, he re-opened the pit at Stainforth, at a cost of £100m, financed by £50m from VTB Bank. It is part of the Barnsley Seam with around 27m tonnes of coal reserves. A £1.2bn 900MW clean-coal IGCC power station, known as the Hatfield IGCC Project, is to be built next to the colliery.
[edit] Personal life
He is married to Rosalind and lives at Wiseton Hall at Wiseton in north Nottinghamshire near Gringley-on-the-Hill, close to the A631. He is a member of the Worshipful Company of Fuellers.
He has also invested money in the Wiseton Stables. His brother (born August 9 1939) also had an interest in race horses as well as military equipment.
