Firm posts strong profit growth

INVESTMENT holding company PSG saw its share price slide yesterday, despite releasing interim results that indicated strong profit growth. PSG owns 30.7 percent of Capitec Bank and close to 58.5 percent of education group Curro. The company reported a 42 percent hike in recurring headline earnings to 354.5c per share for the six months to August. PSG shares on the JSE fell 3.85 percent to R242.98 yesterday, which valued the company at R53.9 billion. The group’s interim dividend increased by 82 percent to 100c per share with a sum-of-theparts value of R209.35 per share as at October 7, up from R196.85 in August last year. PSG believes its investment portfolio will continue to yield above average returns in future. – Banele Ginindza

GLENCORE

GLENCORE, the commodity trader and miner seeking to cut its $30 billion (R400bn) debt load by a third amid a rout in prices, is in talks to sell two copper mines in Australia and Chile after approaches from buyers. The firm might divest the Cobar mine in Australia’s New South Wales together with a metallurgical plant that produced about 50 000 tons of copper a year, Glencore said yesterday. It is also offering the Lomas Bayas open-pit operation in Chile’s Atacama Desert, which produces about 75 000 tons of refined copper annually. The sales were “unlikely to move the needle much in terms of net debt reduction”, said Numis Securities analysts. In August, Anglo American sold two mines – which together supply about 100 000 tons of copper a year – for $300 million in cash, potentially rising to $500m if metals prices increase. Glencore might get between $350m and $400m, said Investec analysts, extrapolating from the deal with Anglo. Glencore’s chief executive Ivan Glasenberg announced its debt-reduction plan in early September in response to investor concern about its capacity to repay borrowings after a collapse in commodities. – Bloomberg