Zimbabwe central banker stockpiles gold to bolster ZiG currency
The ZiG - short for Zimbabwe gold — is the nation’s sixth attempt at having a functioning local currency in the last 15 years.
Dishaba platinum mine, in the Limpopo province of South Africa. (Image courtesy of Anglo American Platinum)
July 18 (Reuters) – South Africa’s Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) expects half-year profits to fall by as much as 67 percent due to a stronger rand, lower sales and post-tax impairments, the company said on Tuesday.
The world’s biggest platinum producer forecast headline earnings per share (HEPS) at 210 to 335 cents per share for the six months which ended on June 30.
That is down 47 to 67 percent from restated 2016 earnings of 629 cents per share.
Headline EPS strips out certain one-off items and is the main profit measure in South Africa.
“Expected headline and basic earnings are lower due a significant strengthening of the rand in H1 2017 compared to H1 2016, as well as lower sales volumes,” the company said in a statement.
Headline earnings and basic earnings were also hurt by an attributable post-tax impairment of 2.2 billion rand ($170 million), Amplats said.
($1 = 12.9331 rand) (Reporting by Tanisha Heiberg; editing by Ed Stoddard and Jason Neely)
