JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) -Anglo American Platinum will pay an additional $856 million cash dividend ahead of its planned spinoff into a standalone unit, it said on Monday.
The payout is despite annual profit slumping 40% to about 8.4 billion rand ($456.7 million) as lower platinum-group metal prices continue to squeeze earnings.
Johannesburg-based Amplats said the 15.7 billion rand cash payout is in addition to a final dividend of 3 rand per share, or about 800 million rand, ahead of its plan to demerge from parent company Anglo American.
Amplats will pay the additional dividend from its net cash reserves of about 17.6 billion rand, CEO Craig Miller said on a call with journalists.
CFO Sayurie Naidoo added that the company can afford the extra payout without compromising its liquidity position.
“All our assets are cash generative and therefore we expect by the end of the year we will still be in a cash neutral position,” she said.
The miner’s shares rose as much as 3.8% in early morning trading.
“We have modelled this on various price scenarios and we still believe we will be able to execute on our strategy.” Naidoo said.
The platinum miner is due to be spun off from the London listed group by June, part of a restructuring strategy implemented by Anglo American after fighting off a $49 billion takeover bid from bigger rival BHP last year.
Anglo has also sold its coal assets and is in the process of selling its nickel business in Brazil. It also plans to divest its De Beers diamond unit.
($1 = 18.3938 rand)
(Reporting by Felix Njini and Nelson Banya; Editing by Tom Hogue and Christian Schmollinger, Kirsten Donovan)
