24th Jul 2015 06:42
LONDON (Alliance News) - Anglo American PLC on Friday said it swung to a pretax loss in the first half of 2015 after recording a substantial USD3.5 billion impairment, driven by the fall in commodity prices, and said it is aiming to cut 35% of its workforce as part of its cost-saving initiative.
The FTSE 100-listed multi-commodity miner reported a USD1.9 billion pretax loss in the six months ended June 30, swinging from a USD2.94 billion profit a year earlier, as revenue tanked 17% to USD13.34 billion from USD16.14 billion due to falling commodity prices.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation came in at USD3.28 billion, a drop of 24% from USD4.32 billion.
Anglo American declared an unchanged interim dividend of 32 cents per share.
The pretax loss was caused by "commodity price-driven impairments" totalling USD3.5 billion, of which USD2.9 billion was attributable to Minas-Rio mine in Brazil.
Anglo American said it is aiming to make USD1.5 billion worth of operating and indirect cost reductions and productivity gains between June 2015 and the end of 2016.
The company said it would reduce costs "through the reduction" of its 6,000 overhead and indirect job roles. It said it will cut those jobs by 46%, some of which will come as a result of it selling its assets.
"Post asset sales, we expect to have reduced our number of assets from 55 to 40 and reduced total employees by 35%, while maintaining copper equivalent production. As a result, and following the asset disposals and further business improvement, our underlying Ebitda margin of 25% in the first half of 2015 would increase to 35% on a like for like basis, representing a 40% improvement off a substantially lower cost base," said Chief Executive Mark Cufitani.
Net debt increased to USD13.5 billion at the end of June from USD12.9 billion at the end of December. However following the completion of the sale of the Lafarge Tarmac unit, which sells construction products in the UK, net debt has now fallen to USD11.9 billion.
By Joshua Warner; [email protected]; @JoshAlliance
Copyright 2015 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
Anglo American