16th Feb 2016 07:31
LONDON (Alliance News) - Anglo American PLC on Tuesday reported 2015 earnings that beat analyst expectations despite sharp declines, as the company stepped up its restructuring programme in an attempt to adjust the business to cope with low commodity prices.
The multi-commodity miner reported a 55% fall in underlying earnings before interest and tax to USD2.23 billion from USD4.93 billion in 2014. However that was considerably higher than the USD2.00 billion expected by analysts.
Underlying earnings fell at a steeper rate, dropping 63% to USD827.0 million from USD2.21 billion a year ago, as revenue declined 26% to USD23.00 billion from USD30.98 billion.
Underlying Ebitda was down 38% in 2015 to USD4.85 billion from USD7.83 billion, a touch above analyst expectations.
The loss before tax and items widened significantly during the year to USD5.45 billion from only a USD259.0 million loss.
As previously guided, Anglo American will not pay a final dividend for the year, but shareholders did receive the interim dividend of 32.0 cents announced in 2015.
Anglo American said it aims to have positive free cashflow in 2016, importantly at current commodity prices, and said it is targeting a USD1.90 billion Ebit benefit through further cost cutting and productivity improvements.
Anglo American also ramped up the amount of asset sales it wants to achieve in the year, saying Tuesday it is targeting between USD3.00 to USD4.00 billion in asset disposals to help it reduce its debt to below USD10.00 billion by the end of this year. At the end of 2015, net debt stood at USD12.90 billion, which was lower than expected and below the company's guidance range of USD13.00 billion to USD13.50 billion.
On Monday, ratings agency Moody's downgraded its rating on the miner to junk territory, expressing concerns about further problems in its bulk commodities operations and expressing doubts about its ability to complete the divestments it needs to make.
Moody's downgraded its rating on Anglo to Ba3 from Baa3 with a negative outlook, making Anglo American the first major London-listed miner to lose its investment-grade credit rating.
By Joshua Warner; [email protected]; @JoshAlliance
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