Top US coal miner Peabody Energy has raised its offer for Australia’s Macarthur Coal by 8% to A$3.56 billion ($4.6 billion), after Macarthur rejected its first offer last week.

The move came as Peabody tried to thwart Macarthur’s plan to take over smaller rival Gloucester Coal in a deal that would make Singapore’s Noble Group Macarthur’s biggest shareholder with a 24.6% stake.

At the same time, Noble, Gloucester’s controlling shareholder, made an offer to buy out Gloucester at A$12.60 a share, in a deal valuing the group at A$1.02 billion, if the firm’s takeover by Macarthur deal fell through.

Noble’s plan to sell its current stake in Gloucester to Macarthur was thrown into jeopardy last week after Peabody announced its bid for Macarthur and said a condition of the offer was for Macarthur to drop its bid for Gloucester.

Peabody on Tuesday urged Macarthur to delay the April 12 vote on the takeover, saying its offer of A$14 a share for Macarthur was 44% more than the value of Macarthur shares implied in the Gloucester takeover plan.

Under Macarthur’s bid for Gloucester, Noble would become Macarthur’s top shareholder ‘at a bargain basement discount to the current market value,’ Peabody said.

Trading in both Macarthur and Gloucester shares was halted on Tuesday pending announcements by the companies on the takeover tussle.