Macarthur Coal Ltd. said today that it has received an improved takeover offer from New Hope Corporation Ltd. The company said that New Hope included including a cash option of up to $A950 million in a revised bid.

The revised offer by New Hope came as it felt that its previous offer was not capable of being a superior proposal to its existing Gloucester proposal.

Under the revised takeover offer, now Macarthur shareholders have increased flexibility to choose between. They can either receive 2.7 New Hope shares for every Macarthur share, or they can receive $A14.50 cash for every Macarthur share.

Earlier New Hope gave an all scrip offer of $A3.71 billion to Macarthur.

New Hope said that the revised offer would provide increased flexibility to Macarthur shareholders. The company also said that the Macarthur board would see the value of its revised offer.

"New Hope believes that offering a cash alternative is attractive to Macarthur shareholders and the merged entity will retain a strong cash balance to fund the company's development pipeline," said New Hope in a statement today.