Tharisa Plc is a mineral exploration and mining company. The companyâs business activities include exploration, development, and production of chromite and platinum group metals. It operates the Tharisa Mine that covers an area of approximately 5,516 hectares located on the south-western limb of the Bushveld Complex, South Africa.
Tharisa offers chemical, foundry, and metallurgical grade chrome concentrate products; and ferrochrome and stainless steel. The company also undertakes the business of logistics operations, including the distribution of PGM concentrate and chrome concentrate through rail and road to customers and port facilities in South Africa. It has operations in Cyprus, South Africa, and China. Tharisa is headquartered in Paphos, Cyprus.
Result Updates â H1 FY2019
Recently (as on May 15, 2019), the metal mining group reported its interim condensed consolidated financial statements for the period ended March 31, 2019. Group's revenue dipped by 16.4 per cent to US$166.5 mn against US$199.2 mn in the year-ago period. EBITDA plunged by 44.4 per cent to US$30.1 mn as compared to US$54.1 mn in H1 FY18. The EBITDA margin for the reported period stood at 18.1 per cent from 27.2 per cent in the year-ago period.
Headline profit in the first half of 2019 was US$10.5 mn against the US$25.7 mn in the same period of the corresponding year and witnessed a plunge of 59.1 per cent. Earnings per share for H1 FY19 stood at US$ 4 cents and down by 60 per cent from US$10 cents in H1 FY18.
Production Statistics
Platinum group metals (PGM) recoveries lowered by 250 bps to 80.7% but stood above the target of 80.0%. PGM production declined by 12.2 per cent against the corresponding period of the last financial year to 67.6 koz. Chrome recoveries plummeted by 510 bps to 60.8 per cent, and production was down by 16.2 per cent to 614.1 kt from 732.5 kt in the first half of FY18.
Dividend
In line with their policy to distribute a minimum 15 per cent of net attributable profit to shareholders after tax, the board of Tharisa Plc has recommended an interim dividend of US$0.5 cents/share. The proposed dividend will be paid on June 19, 2019, and will be paid from reserves.
Stock Performance
Daily Price Chart (As on May 16, 2019), before the market close. (Source: Thomson Reuters)
At the time of writing (as on May 16, 2019, at 10:09 AM GMT), shares of Tharisa Plc were quoting at GBX 107.50 and trading flat against the previous day closing level. Shares have touched a 52w high of GBX 121.94 and a 52w low of GBX 84.0 respectively.
The stock has tumbled around 5.3 per cent in the last five trading sessions, however, on a yearly basis, the stock was up by 3.37 per cent.
From the volume standpoint, its 5-day average daily volume traded on the LSE was 206.63 per cent above the 30-day average volume traded.
The outstanding market capitalisation of the company stood at £289.73 mn, which ranks it among the small-cap stocks listed on the London Stock Exchange.