Aurubis reports good half-year results

The Aurubis Group generated operating earnings before taxes (EBT) of € 113 million in the first half of fiscal year 2015/16 (previous year: € 181 million, including extraordinary effects in the amount of € 50 million).

The business performance was positively influenced by increased treatment and refining charges for copper concentrates with a good throughput at the same time, robust sales of copper products and the strong US dollar.

In contrast, a low copper scrap supply and an oversupply on the global sulfuric acid markets placed corresponding price pressure on the results.

“The markets relevant to us developed differently. However, we achieved good half-year results and even exceeded analysts’ expectations for the second quarter,” commented Erwin Faust, Aurubis AG Executive Board Spokesman, regarding the results.

The prior-year earnings included positive extraordinary effects of about € 50 million, which mainly resulted from low precious metal inventories at the end of the first half-year.

The Aurubis Group generated revenues of € 4,725 million in the first six months of fiscal year 2015/16 (previous year: € 5,519 million). The reduction in revenues is primarily due to lower metal prices.

The operating ROCE (rolling EBIT for the last four quarters) was 12.7 % (previous year: 15.8 %).

Outlook

We continue to expect good conditions on the copper concentrate markets. For the product markets, we anticipate stable demand at a slightly lower level. Since much of the revenue is US dollar-based, we continue to expect positive contributions to earnings compared to the previous year due to the strong US dollar.

In our view, there haven’t been any signals for sustainable improvement on the markets for copper scrap and sulfuric acid so far. Further metal price increases could generally have a positive impact on copper scrap markets.

The large-scale shutdown in Pirdop (Bulgaria) started on April 14. Currently, all of the work is going according to schedule, and we expect the facilities to start up again in early June.

The improvement projects that we have initiated are contributing to earnings in the current fiscal year; they will, however, only have a significant positive impact in future fiscal years.

“The large-scale shutdown in Pirdop (Bulgaria), which we had previously announced, started in mid-April 2016. This will significantly impact our results in Q3 2015/16. We confirm our forecast for the whole fiscal year: compared to the record result of the previous year, we will generate a significantly lower but nevertheless good result in fiscal year 2015/16,” Erwin Faust summarized the fiscal year overview.

You can find the complete report on the first half of fiscal year 2015/16, including the segment reporting, at www.aurubis.com

The IFRS earnings before taxes for the first half-year amounted to € 40 million (previous year: € 176 million). In contrast to operating earnings, IFRS earnings include measurement effects due to copper price fluctuations and other factors. Therefore, the operating earnings are decisive for Aurubis in assessing the business performance and managing the company.