Endeavour Mining pledges minimum $500m dividend payout over next three years

Sébastien de Montessus, former CEO, Endeavour Mining

ENDEAVOUR Mining has targeted dividends over the next three years totalling $500m with the potential to pay more if the gold price trades above $1,500/oz.

Speaking at a presentation today outlining the group’s financial and operating plans, including new ESG targets, Endeavour Mining CEO Sébastien de Montessus said a minimum dividend of $125m had been set for the current financial year.

For the 2022 and 2023 financial years, dividends of $150m and $175m would be paid respectively, he said. The company paid a $60m maiden dividend for its 2020 financial year equal to 37 US cents a share distributed semi-annually.

In addition to the possibility of higher dividends, Endeavour also raised the prospect of extending the buy-back programme announced in March in which it said it would repurchase up to 5% of its issued share capital, equal to 12.2 million shares. Some $49m worth of shares had been bought back to date.

Gold is currently trading at $1,889/oz.

Over the past two years, Endeavour has been on an aggressive merger and acquisition programme in which it lifted gold production this year to between about 1.37 million to 1.5 million ounces a year from about 900,000 oz for the 2020 financial year.

Endeavour also published today its sustainability report in which it set out a target of a 30% reduction in emissions by 2030. Switching to renewable power had the “most potential” with solar power expected to form the core part of its future energy mix, it said. A solar power plant would be built at Endeavour’s Houndé mine in Burkina Faso.

The 2021 long-term executive compensation award was tied to the successful implementation of the carbon reduction strategy, Endeavour said.

Endeavour is due to debut on the premium segment of the London Stock Exchange around June 14. If the company is accepted into the FTSE 100 Index it will automatically trigger tracker funds into the stock.

Speaking in May, De Montessus said that from June Endeavour Mining would be positioned to compete “… at the same level with those peers that have better valuation than us which makes us very attractive from an entry point”.

“That’s why I expect this gap to very quickly disappear, and hopefully – in the years to come – we are the new Randgold, he said, referring to Randgold Resources which in 2019 merged with Barrick Gold.

Shares in Endeavour Mining had traded nearly 6% lower over the past 12 months, and are 11% lower on a year-to-date basis. This compares to a near 21% decline for B2Gold year- to-date , a Toronto listed firm that operates in Mali.