Updated trading statement in respect of the six months ended 31 December 2015
3 March 2016
Shareholders are referred to the trading statement released on the Stock Exchange News Service of the JSE Limited on 11 December 2015 whereby shareholders were advised that headline earnings and basic earnings to be reported on for the six months ended 31 December 2015 (1H F2016) would be at least 20% lower than those of the previous corresponding period.
The Company and its directors are satisfied that a reasonable degree of certainty exists to provide shareholders with an update of the likely range by which the Company’s headline earnings per share and basic earnings per share are expected to decrease.
ARM’s 1H F2016 headline earnings were negatively affected by a decline in US Dollar commodity prices for all the commodities which ARM produces. The lower US Dollar prices were partly offset by a weaker average Rand/US Dollar exchange rate. Most of ARM’s operations delivered good unit cost control.
Accordingly, ARM announces that headline earnings per share for 1H F2016 are expected to decrease by between 50% and 53% to between 222 cents and 238 cents (1H F2015: 473 cents).
ARM’s 1H F2016 basic earnings were largely impacted by the following special item:
- An impairment of assets at the Lubambe Copper Mine mainly as a result of a revision to (i) the short to medium term copper price outlook, (ii) the mining plan and (iii) the discount rate used in the valuation.
Basic earnings per share are therefore expected to decline by between 219% and 242% to a basic loss per share of between 440 cents and 525 cents (1H F2015: 369 cents profit).
The financial information on which this trading statement is based has neither been reviewed nor reported on by the external auditors of ARM.
The Company’s 1H F2016 results will be released on 11 March 2016.
For all investor relations queries, please contact:
Jongisa Magagula
Corporate Development and Head of Investor Relations
Office: +27 11 779 1507
Email: jongisa.magagula@arm.co.za
Johannesburg
3 March 2016
Sponsor: Deutsche Securities (SA) (Proprietary) Limited