By Shaun Murison*
Anglo American Plc released interim results for 2014, which although pressured were ahead of expectations.
During the period, depreciating producer currencies and increased production across most of the company’s portfolio helped offset the drag induced by the prolonged strike within the platinum sector as well as pressured commodity prices.
Group revenue (including associates and joint ventures), fell marginally to $16.144 billion from $16.193 billion in the comparative interim period. Underlying operating profit fell 10% to $2.932 billion from $3.262 billion.
The breakdown of the underlying profit shows Iron ore and Manganese to be the largest contribution thereof at $1.229 billion, declining 25.65% from the 1st half of 2013 comparative.
The declining operating profit from iron ore was offset predominantly by gains from copper and diamonds (De Beers). Copper and De Beers together were attributable to more than 50% of underlying profit, increasing their profits by 19.68% and 33.9% respectively. The underlying earnings per share increased by 2% to $0.98, a beat on consensus estimates which predicted an earnings per share decline of around 9% to $0.89.
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*Shaun has worked in financial markets for over eight years, and until recently ran IG’s Durban branch in South Africa, before moving to Johannesburg.
