Despite the five-month strike in the platinum sector impacting AECI’s half-year performance, the sale of its Modderfontein property and improved performance from the chemical cluster hiked headline earnings per share (HEPS) by 10%.
The JSE-listed group’s R1.1-billion sale of property to Shanghai Zendai in March had contributed 192c to the HEPS, offsetting the 161c shaved from HEPS owing to the protracted strike in the platinum sector, which ended in June.
AECI posted HEPS of 390c for the first six months of 2014, compared with HEPS of 356c in the first half of 2013, while earnings a share jumped 51%, from 356c in the six months ended June 2013, to 537c in the period under review.
Headline earnings improved 9% to R436-million.
The company’s profit from operations rose 33% to R814-million, while its profit for the period increased to R608-million, up from R401-million during the first half of 2013.
AECI reported revenue of R8-billion in the half-year under review – an 11% rise on the prior year.
The group’s speciality chemicals cluster had, despite the strikes cutting R100-million from operating profit, delivered a 2% rise in profit from operations to R397-million and an 11% increase in revenue to R4-billion, owing to volume growth and the effects of the rand:dollar exchange rate.
The R400-million acquisition of Clariant’s African water treatment business and subsequent integration into ImproChem would be accounted for during the second half of the year.
Revenue from AECI’s explosives arm, AEL, remained flat at R3.5-billion after the platinum-sector strike weighed on volumes. The unit’s profit from operations plunged 62% to R120-million, with an estimated R150-million of the decline a result of a direct impact from the strikes.
AECI declared an interim cash dividend of 115c a share for the first half of the year.