Anglo’s full-year net loss widened to $2.51 billion from $961 million in 2013 after it wrote down the value of its iron ore and coal assets by $3.9 billion.
Revenues fell 7.7 percent to $27.07 billion while net debt increased to $12.9 billion at the end of the year – this is set to peak at $13.5-14 billion this year, CEO Mark Cutifani said on Friday.
“In the immediate term, I expect tough trading conditions to prevail during 2015, but we are determined to continue to build on our already very significant operational improvements, drive towards an effective and efficient organisation and culture, and to be unwavering in our capital discipline,” he said.
Stripping out the effect of the writedown, $3.5 billion of which was for its struggling Minas Rio iron ore project in Brazil, and other charges, full-year pretax profit fell 25 percent to $4.9 billion from the 2013 total, which the company attributed to “sharply lower commodity prices” – principally iron ore, the value of which fell by around half last year..
The decline was were partially offset by weaker producer country currencies, which had a positive impact of $1.3 billion to underlying earnings before interest and taxes (Ebit) as well as increased production and sales volumes, it said.
“Our diversified product portfolio provided us with a degree of insulation from the particularly sharp price falls for the bulk commodities of iron ore and coal, albeit in an environment where weaker commodity prices accounted for $2.4 billion of underlying Ebit reduction,” Cutifani said.
“Despite the headlines of economic uncertainty and geopolitical tensions, the underlying fundamentals of our business… remain attractive over the long term,” he added.
(Editing by Mark Shaw)
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