REUTERS, London | Monday
MINING giant Anglo American Plc is expected to report a 62% leap in half-year profit, driven by soaring platinum and diamond earnings with the good times forecast to roll on, for now.
Mining analysts have forecast Anglo’s headline profit (net profit before exceptionals and goodwill amortisation) to leap to around US$87m from US$537m a year earlier, sending earnings per share surging 59% to US$2.24.
Anglo is also tipped to boost the interim divided by 21% to 51 U.S. cents per share and analysts say the second half of the year should be even better.
”Platinum just keeps ploughing ahead and the second half is going to be better than the first half,” a London analyst said, forecasting a full-year profit of US$1.96 billion, up 50%.
Anglo’s platinum subsidiary, Anglo American Platinum Corp (Amplats), reported a doubling in half-year headline earnings to R2.611bn, led by surging world platinum group metal prices and a weaker rand.
The world’s largest platinum producer, owned 50.22% by Anglo, said it expected the second half to be even better.
Diamonds will also give a sparkle to Anglo’s results after the world’s top diamond marketing group, De Beers, recently reported a tripling in half-year headline earnings. Anglo owns 32.2% of De Beers.
Diamond earnings were driven by U.S. retail demand and by De Beers’ decision to shrink its high-cost stockpile, but it said it anticipated a slowdown in second-half diamond sales.
Combined, Anglo’s diamonds and platinum businesses are expected to account for almost half of group operating profit, compared with 32% in the first half of 1999.
In the second half of this year, the long-depressed coal business is also expected to bounce back as prices firm.
Anglo’s shares have also surged on the London Stock Exchange, outperforming the sector by 15% over that time, but a glittering bottom line is unlikely to deflect market attention from Anglo’s longer-term goal of transforming itself into a more focused and truly global enterprise. – Reuters