Vale CEO Murilo Ferreira
Photo by: Bloomberg
VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – Diversified Brazilian mining major Vale expects to book a $1.2-billion after-tax impairment charge on its fertiliser business for the fourth quarter.
The company, which expects to report fourth-quarter and full-year results on February 23, said in regulatory filing on Monday that the charge arises from the December agreement to sell certain assets in its fertiliser division to Mosaic Co for $2.5-billion.
Vale, which is headed up by CEO Murilo Ferreira, added that owing to a lower price outlook for certain products, it expects to recognise further impairments (with no cash effect) in its base metals operations in Vale Newfoundland and Labrador and Vale New Caledonia.
While the miner is still finalising the exact figures of these impairments, it expects these to be “significantly less” than the $4.9-billion impairment booked on these assets in 2015.
Vale also said it plans to reopen a 2026 bond issue and use the proceeds to redeem bonds maturing in March 2018. The investment banking units of Banco Bradesco, Banco do Brasil, JP Morgan Securities, MUFG Securities Americas and Santander Investment Securities will manage the issue, according to the filing.