It was always going to be hard for Antofagasta (ANTO) to follow the eye-watering half-year performance of highly geared, high-growth peer KAZ Minerals (KAZ). For a start, the larger Chilean outfit’s net borrowings at the end of June were a mere $860m (£670m), or 75 per cent of interim operating cash flow, making any deleveraging efforts less pronounced than its Kazakh rival. Like KAZ, Antofagasta increased copper production while reducing costs, although a 7.1 per cent uptick in output was outshone by the 100 per cent increase managed by its central Asian counterpart.
But these were still a strong set of figures from Antofagasta. Helped by higher sales volumes of copper and by-products, and an average copper price 25 per cent up on the 2016 comparative, the group booked a total operating profit of $743m, versus $297m last time round.
The bottom line was juiced by a lower-than-expected effective tax rate of 34 per cent. According to management, the full-year take is now likely to sit towards the lower end of the previously guided 35 to 40 per cent range. That partly depends on the price of copper, which at $2.99 a pound now fetches a premium of 10 per cent to 2017’s first half.
On average, analysts expect adjusted pre-tax profit of $1.25bn and EPS of 50.8¢ this year, up from $876m and 34.7¢ in 2016.
| ANTOFAGASTA (ANTO) | ||||
| ORD PRICE: | 970p | MARKET VALUE: | £9.56bn | |
| TOUCH: | 970-971p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 975p | LOW: 473p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 2.1% | PE RATIO: | 38 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 706¢ | NET DEBT: | 10% | |
| Half-year to | Turnover | Pre-tax | Earnings per | Dividend |
| 30 Jun | ($bn) | profit ($m) | share (¢) | per share (¢) |
| 2016 | 1.44 | 277 | 8.9 | 3.1 |
| 2017 | 2.05 | 689 | 29.5 | 10.3 |
| % change | +42 | +149 | +231 | +232 |
| Ex-div: | 7 Sep | |||
| Payment: | 6 Oct | |||
| £1=$1.28. | ||||
