SINGAPORE (Mar 9): Golden Energy and Resources (GEAR) saw its full-year earnings nearly treble to US$63.0 million ($82.9 million) for the FY17 ended December, from US$22.0 million a year ago.
FY17 revenue almost doubled to an all-time high of US$763.8 million, from US$393.3 million a year ago.
The increase was on the back of robust sales momentum from the group’s Coal Mining and Coal Trading divisions.
Revenue generated from its Coal Mining division rose to US$645.4 million in FY17, from US$329.5 million a year ago, as sales volume grew 8.3% to 15.6 million tonnes (MT) and weighted average selling price increased 27.0% to US$42.91 per metric tonne during the year.
Higher coal sales volume and favourable weighted average selling price also bolstered revenue from the group’s Coal Trading division, which more than doubled to US$114.0 million in FY17.
As at end December, cash and cash equivalents stood at US$188.7 million.
GEAR has declared a final dividend of 1.00 cent per share for FY17, bringing the total dividend payout in the year to 2.01 cents per share.
“GEAR has continued to deliver another year of record profitability for our coal mining operations in FY17,” says Fuganto Widjaja, GEAR’s executive director and group CEO. “This underscores our consistent ability to capitalise on the extensive scale of GEAR’s operations and our relatively low cash cost of production.”
“This enabled us to be nimble in ramping up our production output to take advantage of the buoyant coal price environment,” he adds.
With its robust financial position, coupled with a low gearing ratio of 0.17 times, Widjaja says “this puts us in a strong position for earnings accretive acquisitions as well as strategic investments that can enhance our competitiveness and underpin our long-term profitable growth.”
Shares of GEAR closed 1 cent down at 39.5 cents on Friday.
