Sasol records earnings uptick but Heps down

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Headline earnings per share (Heps) fell by 17% to R49.76, while earnings per share rose by 0.3% to R48.71 compared to the prior year.

Profit from operations of R46.5bn went up by 2% compared to the prior year. Sasol said this was due to a strong overall operational performance with higher sales volumes, resilient margins and cost increases contained to below inflation.

However, profitability was dented by a 33% drop in average Brent crude oil prices. This decrease was partly off-set by a 10% weaker average rand/US dollar exchange rate (R11.45/US$ for the year ended June 30 2015 compared with R10.39/US$ in the prior year).

In addition, Sasol’s profitability for the 2015 financial year was boosted by a few once-off, significant items. Excluding the impact of remeasurement items, net once-off charges and movements in Sasol's share-based payment expense, normalised earnings attributable to shareholders fell by 30% from the prior year.

According to Sasol, the group maintained a strong operational performance across its global integrated value chain over the year.

Full-year dividend declared

Sasol declared a final gross dividend of R11.50 per share (15% lower than the prior year), bringing the full-year dividend to R18.50 per share.

"Foreign exchange and oil price movements are outside of our influence, hence our focus remains firmly on factors within our control, which include volume growth, margin improvement, cost optimisation and cash conservation. In addition, oil and other commodity price risk hedging are continuously evaluated," said Sasol.

Source: Fin24