Impala Platinum forecasts profit plunge

Picture: Boxer Ngwenya.

Picture: Boxer Ngwenya.

Published Aug 15, 2014

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Johannesburg - Impala Platinum, the world’s second-biggest producer of the metal, said full-year profit declined as much as 75 percent after a five-month strike at its biggest South African operation crippled output.

Earnings excluding one-time items will be 82 cents to 98 cents per share for the year ended June 30 compared with 3.30 rand a year earlier, the Johannesburg-based company said today in a statement.

The stock declined as much as 3 percent to 103.41 rand in Johannesburg and traded 2.1 percent lower at 104.31 rand by 9:41 am

“This is mainly due to the five-month industrial action experienced by the Impala Rustenburg operations,” Impala said in the statement.

The walkout by more than 70,000 miners at Impala, Anglo American Platinum and Lonmin cost the companies about 24 billion rand in lost output and workers 10.6 billion rand in wages by the time it ended on June 24.

The strike pushed the economy into contraction in the first three months of this year as mining output plunged.

South Africa accounts for more than two-thirds of mined production of the metal.

Impala’s results will be released on August 28. - Bloomberg News

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