Business
PRELIMINARY RESULTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 2016
PRELIMINARY RESULTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 2016.
About this update from Antofagasta Plc
[{"type":"text","content":"\n \nRNS Number : 3337Z Antofagasta PLC 14 March 2017 \n\n \nNEWS RELEASE, 14 MARCH 2017\n \nPRELIMINARY RESULTS ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 2016\n \nDelivering profitable growth\n \nAntofagasta plc CEO Iván Arriagada said: \"2016 has been a year of operational delivery for Antofagasta putting us on a stronger and larger production base from which to grow. The successful integration of Zaldívar and the ramp-up of Antucoya - alongside the completion of the expansion of Centinela Concentrates - have contributed to a 12.5% rise in copper production to 709,400 tonnes.\n\"But volume increases are not the whole story at Antofagasta. We are focused on growth through profitable tonnes. A combination of measures to boost productivity, improve efficiencies and reduce costs has led to sustainable mine site cost reductions of $176 million in 2016. This performance helped cash flow from operations increase by 70% to $1.5 billion during the year whilst our EBITDA margins improved from 28% to 45%. In the medium term we expect to see a steady shift from a copper market in balance to a slight deficit, leading to further improvement in prices.\nThe Board has decided that in view of the Company's improved performance and the more positive outlook to declare a final dividend of 15.3 cents per share, bringing the dividend for the full year to 18.4 cents per share, which represents 53% of underlying earnings per share, significantly more than the company's commitment to pay-out a minimum of 35%. \n\"Antofagasta's cautious approach has served us well in what is a cyclical industry, providing us with a stable operating base and a strong balance sheet. As a company we were founded with an entrepreneurial spirit, one that looks for opportunities where others do not see them and it is this attitude - combined with a continued commitment to capital discipline - that informs our outlook. Consequently, our focus in 2017 is on developing those projects that offer all our stakeholders the best returns - such as the incremental expansion at Los Pelambres, which we expect to approve by the end of the year - and will underpin the continued success of Antofagasta.\"\n \nHIGHLIGHTS\nFinancial performance \n· EBITDA(1) for the full year was $1,626.1 million, 78.7% higher than the previous year as ...