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London - Xstrata came broadly in line with forecasts with a
30% jump in first-half core profit and more than doubled its dividend, pointing
to a stronger second half as its copper unit helps the miner recover from a
flood-hit start to 2011.
The fourth-largest UK-listed diversified miner - which last
week unveiled production numbers for the first six months broadly in line with
forecasts - said earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation
(Ebitda) came in at $5.82bn, broadly in line with forecasts.
Its operating profit rose 31% to $4.25bn, while attributable
profit came in at $2.9bn, up 25%. Earnings per share rose 24% to $0.98.
The group more than doubled its interim dividend, however,
to $0.13 from $0.05 a year ago.
"In summary, we delivered robust earnings despite a
number of one-off impacts to our operations in the early part of the
year," said Chief Executive Mick Davis. "Our recovery has been swift
and robust and we are now operating with good momentum to deliver a
substantially stronger second half."
Copper, the price of which climbed more than 30% in the
first half, accounted for 50% of Xstrata's operating profit in 2010.
Xstrata pointed to rising costs across the industry, as it
is hit by a jump in diesel prices, increasing energy costs in South Africa and
rising wages across producer nations. But the miner said it had achieved $52m
of real unit cost savings.
Anglo American [JSE:AGL], the first of the UK-listed diversified
miners to report last week, referred to a "dramatic" increase across
the board and CEO Cynthia Carroll said she saw little hope of that
changing.
Xstrata's own consensus of 16 analysts' forecasts had put
expectations for first-half core profit at $5.84bn, with operating profit at
$4.36bn.
EPS was seen at $0.99.
