Anglo American's Cost Performance in Focus at Consensus-Beating Results -- Earnings Review

By Adriano Marchese

Anglo American PLC reported its results for 2019 on Thursday. Here's what you need to know:

NET PROFIT: The company made a profit of $3.55 billion in 2019, and though it remained unchanged from the prior year, it beat the consensus estimate of $3.42 billion, which was compiled from the forecasts of 14 analysts on FactSet.

UNDERLYING EBITDA: Underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization--Anglo American's preferred metric, which strips out certain one-off items--beat both consensus forecast and last year's figures with a rise of 9.2% to $10.01 billion. Consensus had this figure pegged at $9.84 billion, compiled from 19 analysts' forecast on FactSet.

REVENUE: Revenue for the year rose 8.2% to $29.87 billion. Consensus for revenue was $29.29 billion, taken from FactSet based on the forecasts of 17 analysts.

WHAT WE WATCHED:

-COST PERFORMANCE: Strong costs performance helped deliver better Ebitda, says Citi. Anglo delivered strong cost performance with units costs lower than its guidance for copper, nickel, PGMs and Minas Rio, the bank added.

-TRADE WITH CHINA: Anglo American's chief executive says the coronavirus epidemic will be a short-term issue for the diversified mining company. "We are less reliant on China than our major competitors," Mark Cutifani says.

Write to Adriano Marchese at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 20, 2020 05:34 ET (10:34 GMT)

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