Glencore Stays in the Red Despite Cost Cuts -- WSJ
25 Agosto 2016 - 4:03AM
Dow Jones News
By Scott Patterson and Alex MacDonald
LONDON -- A rebound in commodity prices and big cost reductions
weren't enough to pull Glencore PLC out of the red in the first
half of the year.
On Wednesday, the world's No. 3 diversified miner by market
value reported a $369 million net loss for the six months through
June, compared with a $676 million net loss a year earlier.
In Glencore's first half-year report since it embarked on a
sweeping effort to repair its balance sheet, the company said it
was on track to continue reducing debt through a combination of
asset sales, cost cuts and a bounce in commodity prices.
"We have made considerable progress toward achieving our goals,"
Glencore Chief Executive Ivan Glasenberg said Wednesday.
Glencore launched the effort last year when investors were
worried about its then nearly $30 billion in net debt.
The company's shares fell sharply at the time, dropping almost
30% in a single day. The stock has since rebounded, more than
doubling so far this year, driven by a rally in commodity prices
and its progress in slashing debt. On Wednesday, the shares fell
3.1% in London trading.
The company is on track to reinstate its dividend, which it
suspended last year as part of its debt-cutting plan, some time in
2017, Mr. Glasenberg said.
Mr. Glasenberg, once one of the mining industry's most voracious
deal makers, said the company doesn't have plans to acquire new
assets soon keep cutting debt . "There is nothing we're really
looking at right now, " he said.
Some investors have said they want the company to keep cutting
debt and reinstate the dividend before snapping up new mines.
Mr. Glasenberg remained confident that the market for the
commodities his company mines and sells will keep improving, helped
by demand in China and elsewhere. Zinc and coal prices are up 43%
and roughly a third, respectively, this year, driven by production
cuts and Beijing's moves stimulate China's economy.
"We see demand looking not bad around the world," Mr. Glasenberg
said on a conference call with reporters. "Demand in China is still
pretty good."
Glencore's latest results were hurt by a $395 million loss
related to coal trades that suffered as prices rebounded. The
company said it was trying to lock in prices in the second quarter
of 2016 to pay down debt ahead of potential coal-price declines
later in the year. Instead, coal prices kept rising.
If that continues, the trades will continue to bleed, said
Jefferies analyst Chris LaFemina in a note. These "poorly timed
coal hedges have ironically limited Glencore's leverage to the
ongoing recovery in coal prices," he wrote.
Mr. Glasenberg said one disappointment this year has been a
relatively flat price for copper, one of the company's biggest
earnings drivers. He said the market is unnecessarily worried about
a "big wall of supply" expected to come into the market in the
coming years.
"We don't see it," he said. "Inventory levels aren't indicating
that copper should be at these levels."
Glencore's first-half revenue fell 6% to $69.4 billion, largely
because of lower commodity prices in addition to lower copper,
zinc, coal and oil production in the first half compared with the
same period a year before. The company had cut production at some
of its coal, zinc and copper mines in response to low prices and an
oversupply of the commodities.
Glencore said it has largely achieved a major plank of its
debt-reduction plan, agreeing to $3.9 billion in asset sales so far
this year. It has a target of between $4 billion and $5 billion in
such sales.
In the latest move, Glencore said late Tuesday it struck a deal
to sell a stream of future gold production and other metals from an
Australian mine to Evolution Mining Ltd. for $670 million. The deal
comes on top of a pair of other so-called streaming deals for gold
and silver for a combined $1.4 billion.
The proceeds will be used to pay down net debt, which is now on
track to fall to a revised $16.5 billion to $17.5 billion by
year-end, down from a previous target of between $17 billion to $18
billion.
Net debt was $23.6 billion as of June end, down from $25.9
billion at the end of December.
Write to Scott Patterson at scott.patterson@wsj.com and Alex
MacDonald at alex.macdonald@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 25, 2016 02:48 ET (06:48 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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