Africa-Press – South-Africa. Sasol’s annual earnings leapt on the back of stronger oil and chemicals prices in the year ended in June, although they were offset by some operational challenges.
The synthetic fuels and chemicals group on Thursday said it expects adjusted earnings for the year to increase by between 36% and 56% to between R66 billion and R75.6 billion.
The result, Sasol said, was underpinned by a favourable macroeconomic environment, with higher crude oil prices, refining margins and chemicals prices against a backdrop of heightened geopolitical tensions.
“This resulted in a strong gross margin improvement from the prior year, combined with robust cost
and capital expenditure performance,” the group said. These benefits were partly offset by operational challenges in our integrated South African value
chains – with notable issues related to coal production – which resulted in lower production. Oil supply issues which have affected production at Sasol’s Natref refinery will only be reflected in the next reporting period.
Earnings per share are expected to be between R60.59 and R63.51 – an increase of more than 100% compared to the prior year earnings per share of R14.57. Headline earnings per share are expected to be between R42.84 and R50.74 compared to R39.53 in the previous year and representing an increase by between 8% and 28%.
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