LONDON (dpa-AFX) - Commodities trader and miner Glencore Plc. (GLCNF.PK, GLNCY.PK, GLEN.L) Wednesday reported a profit for the first half of the year, helped by production expansion and synergies from the acquisitions of Xstrata and Viterra. The company also announced a share repurchase program of up to $1 billion.
Income attributable to equityholders was $1.72 billion or $0.13 per share, compared to a loss of $9.39 billion or $1.04 per share last year. Prior-year results have been restated.
In the first half of 2013, Glencore had recognised $10.593 billion of other significant expenses, mainly comprising a $1.160 billion accounting loss related to the revaluation of its 34 percent interest in Xstrata immediately prior to the acquisition, a $8.124 billion goodwill impairment recognised upon acquisition of Xstrata and directly attributable transaction costs of $131 million.
During the first half of 2014, Glencore recognized $290 million of significant items.
Adjusted profit was $2.010 billion in the just concluded period. Last year, the firm had reported a pro forma profit of $1.860 billion.
Adjusted Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortization or EBITDA totaled $6.46 billion, while adjusted proforma EBITDA was $6.0 billion last year.
Income before income taxes was $2.498 billion, in comparison with a loss of $9.480 billion a year ago.
Revenue improved to $114.06 billion from $112.04 billion last year.
In Metals and Minerals, revenue declined 20 percent to $31.585 billion from $36.390 billion, while in Energy Products it advanced to $71.306 billion from $68.83 billion.
Revenue from Agricultural Products was $12.588 billion, compared with $16.070 billion last year.
Copper production from own sources climbed 13 percent to 741 kt. Meanwhile, copper prices fell 8 percent to average $6,916 per tonne, partly due to a flood of metal from the unwinding of Chinese collateralized financing deals.
Glencore's acquisition of UK-based miner Xstrata last year, added coal, copper, zinc and nickel mines to its vast resources.
CEO Ivan Glasenberg said, 'Glencore continued to make decisive progress in delivering on the potential created by the Xstrata acquisition over the first half of 2014...We look to the future with optimism based on our strong starting point and our culture of entrepreneurialism and hard work to leverage tightening commodity fundamentals.'
The Board declared an interim distribution of $0.06 per share, an 11 percent increase over the interim distribution in 2013.
The company said it would commence share repurchase up to $1 billion in the period to March 31, 2015.
GLEN.L is up 0.4 percent in early morning trade at 360.50 pence.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX