[miningmx.com] – SIBANYE Gold said attributable profit for its 2015 financial year would more than halve year-on-year owing to a poor operating performance and Eskom load shedding in the March and June quarters respectively.
Share earnings would also be affected by an increase in the weighted number of shares which were issued to pay for the purchase of the Cooke operations which was first unveiled in the 2014 financial year.
Attributable profit would be between R675m and R775m for the year ended 31 December 2015, the company said. Profit attributable to shareholders for the year ended 31 December 2014 was R1,55bn.
Normalised earnings for the year are expected to be between R1,18bn and R1,28bn compared with normalised earnings of R2,26bn for the year ended 31 December 2014.
“As mentioned in the operating update released on 1 February 2016, the operational issues which affected the March 2015 quarter are unlikely to be repeated and a much better operating result is forecast for the year ending 31 December 2016,” it said.
The prevailing rand gold price is also significantly higher than the average price of R475,508/kg for the year ended 31 December 2015, which, should it remain at these levels, will significantly boost earnings and cash flow, it added.
