COMPANY NEWS IN BRIEF

Implats slashes final dividend

Impala Platinum has cut its 2023 dividend by almost 63% after lower revenues and higher costs of sales prompted a just over 81% crash in profits to about R6.2 billion.

The group cut its final dividend for the year to end-June to 165c, or R1.49 billion down from R8.9 billion. In 2023 it was hit by some one-off items, notably a R10.9 billion writedown of Impala Canada, due to the combined impact of a material decrease in the US dollar palladium price profile and higher prevailing inflation.

In its results for the year ended in June, the platinum miner reported a 10% drop in revenue to R106.6 billion amid a 5% decline in sales volumes. A 17% fall in dollar metal prices was partially offset by a 13% weaker rand exchange rate.

"Enhanced operational flexibility, resilience and disciplined execution enabled Implats to successfully navigate a series of domestic and regional challenges, which compounded the effects of softening dollar PGM pricing, rand depreciation and persistent inflation in the period under review," said Implats CEO, Nico Muller.

Cost of sales of R84.3 billion increased 9%, with group mining inflation of 9.2%. Still, Implats closed the period with net cash of just over R25 billion, down only 4.4% year on year. “We have invested heavily in asset integrity, harvesting some of the benefit of our recent strong financial performance to materially strengthen our portfolio competitiveness," said Muller.-Fin24

Sanlam lifts as it flags earnings jump

Financial services group Sanlam flagged a sharp rise in profits for its half-year to end June, with its shares lifting almost 2% in afternoon trade.

Headline earnings per share are expected to rise by as much as 123%, the insurance group said in a brief update, with its net result from financial services per share expected to rise by between 20% and 30%.

The group, valued at about R149 billion on the JSE, generated about R3.68 billion in headline earnings in its 2022 half-year and a net financial services result of R4.55 billion - up 1% - and it had been under some pressure from the catastrophic floods in KwaZulu-Natal.

It said it recorded a "strong performance" in its 2023 half-year, with all clusters and lines of business performing well.

The main items contributing to the growth in net result from financial services were life insurance benefitting from positive risk experience, increased asset-based fee income and improved performance from the credit portfolio backing life insurance liabilities.

General insurance also benefitted from improved underwriting performance and higher investment return on insurance funds, and credit and structuring benefitted from stronger performance from the Indian operations, the group said.-Fin24

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