By Alex MacDonald

 

LONDON--Chilean copper producer Antofagasta PLC (ANTO.LN) Tuesday reported higher net profit for the first half of the year following the sale of its water division and reaffirmed its revised full-year output guidance after a delay in the commissioning of its Antucoya growth project.

The FTSE 100 miner reported net profit of $706 million for the first six months of the year compared with $331 million in the same period a year before. This included $620 million in proceeds from the sale of its water division in June.

The sale more than offset a 31% drop in revenue to $1.79 billion due to lower copper prices and volume sales.

The company reaffirmed its plan to produce 665,000 tons of copper this year, down from an earlier estimate of 695,000 tons.

Antofagasta declared an interim dividend of 3.1 cents per share, representing a 35% pay-out ratio of the half-year net earnings and said that its $1 billion purchase of a 50% stake in the Chilean Zaldivar copper mine is due to close by the end of the year.

 

Write to Alex MacDonald at alex.macdonald@wsj.com

 

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 25, 2015 02:37 ET (06:37 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2015 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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