Johannesburg – The recent recovery in the gold price is expected to buoy Sibanye’s earnings per share for the half year by as much as 150 percent.
The producer, which is in the midst of wrapping up platinum purchases, says in a statement issued on Monday that headline earnings per share will also be better.
Headline earnings per share – a key measure of profitability – will gain 158 percent compared to the 19c a share reported in the first half of last year.
A year ago, the company’s earnings per share came in at 20c a share.
The company explains the increase is “primarily due to the increase in the average rand gold price, which was 301 percent higher for the March 2016 quarter than for the comparable quarter in 2015”.
Normalised earnings per share are expected to increase at least 500 percent from the 27 cents per share normalised earnings reported a year ago.
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The difference between headline and earnings per share and normalised earnings is mostly because if a forecast fair value loss relating to financial instruments, as a result of the increase in Sibanye’s share price which has increased about 130 percent from R23.56 per share at the end of December, it says.
It will issue another trading statement once it has more clarity, it says.
The producer is also considering using its dollar holdings to buy bullion mines abroad as a weaker rand raises the cost of domestic acquisitions.
Sibanye last year said it was buying mines owned by Anglo American Platinum and Aquarius Platinum in South Africa's platinum belt.
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