Anglo American Platinum Ltd, a subsidiary of Anglo American PLC (LSE:AAL), said it will pay a special dividend even as its interim underlying profits dropped 32% from the year earlier.
The world's largest primary producer of platinum said it will pay a special dividend of 40 South African rand (£1.98) per share and an interim dividend of 41 rand per share.
Its underlying earnings on an EBITDA basis fell to 42.8bln rand from 63.3bln rand in the first half of 2021 when it processed and sold much of its inventory that had built up during the Phase A rebuild of its Anglo Converter Plant (ACP) in 2020.
“The first half of 2022 has seen us largely mitigate the operational headwinds of Covid-19, global supply chain disruptions, security of electricity supply, as well as social and geopolitical complexities,” said Amplats chief executive Natascha Viljoen.
“Our performance in the first half of this year represents more normalised levels of sales volumes and resulting EBITDA.”
Total platinum group metals (PGM) production decreased 4% from the year-earlier period and while PGM basket prices also fell to US$2,671 per ounce, it was still the second-highest average price on record.
Full-year metal-in-concentrate production is expected to remain unchanged at between 3.9mln and 4.3mln PGM ounces, and refined production will also remain at between 4-4.4mln ounces.
Amplats said it was confident that full-year guidance will be achieved, but noted that potential external headwinds exist, including further Covid-19-related disruptions and power cuts from state power utility Eskom.