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Johannesburg - Coal development and exploration company
Keaton Energy Holdings [JSE:KEH] reported substantially higher revenue of R474m
from R35m the previous year and a 145% increase in HEPS to 25.2 cents.
The group's preliminary
audited results released on Wednesday said that in its fifth year of
existence the company had firmly established the platform to comfortably exceed
its stated target of 2Mt production a year.
In the 2012 financial year the group
produced and sold a total of 1.2Mt (million tonnes) of coal reflecting both
the continued production build-up at Vanggatfontein and the inclusion of
production from Leeuw Mining and Exploration's
Vaalkrantz.
Revenue of R474.3m which included
R78m in transport revenues of Eskom coal was substantially higher than the
previous year?s R35.1m.
Cost of sales increased to R408.1m.
After accounting for mining and related expenses of R10.3m
and other expenses and income operating profit
for the year was R56.6m. A gain of R114.3m reflecting the Leeuw Mining and
Exploration acquisition boosted operating profit before income and costs to R170.9m.
Profit for the year after taxation of
R8.2m was R149.3m compared with R7.1m in the previous year.
Headline earnings per share (HEPS) increased by 145% to 25.2
cents earnings per share (EPS) by 783% to 90.9 cents
and net asset value per share by 31% to R4.45.
These improvements reflect
substantial production and sales increases from 56
000 tonnes to 1.2Mt the company said.
This had been attained through greenfields exploration and
development and through acquisition.
Landmark achievements were the exploration development and start of production at the Vanggatfontein Colliery
in the Mpumalanga province and the acquisition of a controlling interest in
Leeuw Mining and Exploration.
At Vanggatfonfontein the total run of
mine production increased to 2.1Mt from 137 000
tonnes reflecting the on-going production build-up during the year.
Keaton Energy managing director Paul Miller said work
continued apace to increase saleable production of four and two seam coal from
the 145 000 tonnes per month attained in the
period under review to the planned 175 000 tonnes per
month.
A key focus in respect of the latter involved turning around
Leeuw Mining and Exploration's under-performing
Vaalkrantz Colliery in KwaZulu-Natal.
At Vaalkrantz where
Keaton Energy took effective control from mid-December 2011 total run of mine production almost doubled to 560 000 tonnes with
total saleable production up by 94% to 351 000 tonnes for the full 12 months.
Contributing factors to this turnaround Miller said included Keaton
Energy's early 2011 refinancing of Leeuw Mining and Exploration which meant
existing capital equipment could be refurbished and new equipment bought and
development of the West Adit could be completed and new management appointments
as well as the moving in-house of certain previously out-sourced functions.
Miller said the group had comfortably exceeded its mid-term
production target of 2Mt per year having
established a production platform of 2.7Mt per year across its two operations.
"Our strategy now is to attain 5Mt
a year mid-tier producer status. We have a track-record of success in terms of
greenfields exploration and development on which to advance our future projects
and prospects and we have also demonstrated our ability
to identify distressed assets and turn these to account."
"Stakeholders can expect Keaton
Energy to vigorously pursue both avenues of growth in the years ahead" Miller concluded.
Publication of the integrated report will be in June.
