Johannesburg - Sasol, the world’s biggest producer of liquid fuels, said full-year profit fell 17 percent, after a sustained collapse in energy prices resulted in writedowns.
Profit before one-time items, known as headline earnings, declined to R25.3 billion ($1.8 billion) in the year ended June 30, from R30.4 billion a year earlier, the Johannesburg-based company said in a statement Monday.
So-called diluted headline earnings per share were R41.40, compared with a average estimate of R40.31 by 14 analysts in a Bloomberg survey.
The South African fuel producer reported remeasurement expenses totalling R12.9 billion, citing the drop in energy prices.
Read also: Sasol to cap project costs
Sasol added an impairment of R9.9 billion on its share in the Montney shale-gas properties in Canada, adding to a writedown of R7.4 billion it took in December, as natural-gas prices dropped during the year.
The average price of Brent crude, to which Sasol’s revenue is linked, was 41 percent lower than a year earlier, it said.
While Sasol has implemented programs to conserve about R75 billion of cash through 2018, the estimated cost of its Lake Charles chemical project in the US has increased by almost 25 percent to $11 billion (R158 billion).
BLOOMBERG
For more on this topic, puck up a copy of Business Report tomorrow.