Australia's Whitehaven Coal posts 29% drop in annual profit, shares fall
Australia's Whitehaven Coal reported a bigger-than-expected 29% drop in annual profit on Wednesday, hurt by lower realised coal prices, sending its shares more than 4% lower even as the miner unveiled a share buyback programme.
The average achieved coal price fell 6% to A$202 per metric ton for the year ended June 30, reflecting cyclical weakness and the impact of a stronger Australian dollar.
Underlying net profit after tax came in at A$227-million ($160.69-million), lower than A$319-million a year earlier and the Visible Alpha estimate of A$247.6-million. Revenue fell 7% to A$5.4-billion.
Shares of the country's largest independent coal miner fell as much as 4.6% to A$7.40, posting their biggest intraday percentage drop since July 28.
Whitehaven Coal announced a final dividend of 6 Australian cents per share, unchanged from a year earlier, bringing the full-year dividend to 10 cents per share. It said it intended to spend about A$47-million over six months under its share buyback programme.
Its unit cost of coal fell to A$132 per ton from A$139, while capital expenditure dropped to A$349-million from A$390-million. For fiscal 2027, Whitehaven estimated capital expenditure of A$390-million to A$490-million, up from A$349-million incurred in fiscal 2026.
"We continued to focus on the controllables — productivity, cost discipline, margin optimisation and cash generation — with both unit cost of coal and capital expenditure at the low end of FY26 guidance," said CEO and MD Paul Flynn.
It forecast managed run-of-mine coal production between 38-million tons and 41-million tons for 2027, compared with 40.3-million produced in 2026.
"FY27 guidance provided with volumes a touch soft, unit cost in line but capex lower, which may see consensus earnings and cash flow downgrades," Glyn Lawcock, head of metals and mining research at Barrenjoey, said in a note.
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