Harmony Gold (HMY +6.5%) trades higher despite reporting a 69% decline in profits for this year’s H1 to 1.39B South African rand (~$96M) from 4.6B rand, reflecting lower gold prices received and higher operating costs per unit due to safety-related and labor stoppages, as well as geotechnical problems.
H1 headline EPS fell 65% Y/Y to 2.48 rand, in line with the company’s guidance of 2.33-2.68 rand, while revenues rose by 2% to 22B rand (~$1.5B) from 21.6B rand a year earlier and operating free cash flow margin was cut in half to 11%.
H1 production profit fell 26% to 5B rand; the miner already had cut its gold production guidance for the year of 1.48M-1.56M oz. compared with previous guidance of 1.54M-1.63M oz.
Harmony Gold CEO Peter Steenkamp tells Mining Weekly that the biggest difference vs. the corresponding six months was the rand gold price, which had approached 1M rand/kg and then fell dramatically.
The miner also declared an interim dividend of 0.40 rand/share, compared with 1.10 in the same interim period a year earlier.
Several gold mining stocks are rising as gold futures rise, capping a 6% so far in February in what would be its best monthly gain in nine months.
