Earnings Labs

DRDGOLD Limited (DRD)

Q4 2013 Earnings Call· Fri, Aug 23, 2013

$26.74

-2.84%

Key Takeaways · AI generated
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Transcript

Craig Barnes

Management

Thanks, Niël. Morning, ladies and gentlemen. Yes, so these are the key financial indicators, as Niël mentioned, that we really focus on within the company. The first one that I want to talk about is our operating margin. The way these graphs are set out, you are seeing gold is the previous year and in gray is the current year's performance. We have broken it up by quarter and in the last two bar charts on the right hand side, is the year-to-date numbers, in other words, the full year's numbers. You can see that our operating margin has remained or tracked pretty much what we had in the previous year. It was just really in the last quarter when the gold price, the Rand gold price declined, then obviously that margin dropped down to 22%. But you can see, overall for the year, the margin has held at about 32%. More importantly, in terms of margins is to look at this new measure that World Gold Council has come out with. This really looks at your cash cost or your operating costs plus your sustaining capital and your corporate costs. So there a whole lot of additional costs that have been added into this number. I think it gives you a truer reflection of, effectively, the cash that you are generating within the business. So what we have done here, is we have recorded what we call the all-in sustained costs margin. So it's the margin after looking at your all-in sustaining costs. You can see that that has remained pretty steady, year-over-year. In the last bar chart there, you can see it's about 20%. Yes, that margin did drop down within the last quarter with the Rand gold price dropping. I think it dropped down to about 15%…

Craig Barnes

Management

Okay, all right. We are in labor negotiations at the time. We don't form part of the Chamber of Mines labor forum. They are four or five mines that entered into a single agreement on wages. We remember the Chamber but we don't negotiate as part of that forum. I know that the Chamber unions are going into dispute as we speak. I think we are still some way away from that. Both parties have stated their position. They are now going into the mediation phase, if I am not mistaken. The actual outcome of the wage talks are, if history is anything to go by, this is probably a little academic. We have had a profit participation scheme in operation at our operations for quite some time now. Basically what that means, in the past two years, I think the basic increase was about 8% and then employees could earn up to 15%. In other words, an additional 7% depending on the real profits, the cash and bank profit after everything profit. They have been earning that. It's on the sliding scale. So they have been earning over the last 24 odd months. They have been earning a double-digit increase in any event, regardless. Indicators are that, at least the business and the way the cost are being managed and the rate at which materials are coming into the business, that is not far-fetched that a similar sort of scenario could play out going into the future. Having said that, I think it's important for the negotiating unions to remain credible in the eyes of their constituencies. I think it's important that we, as a corporate, also recognize the fact that we are able to deliver into these financial results, because our employees didn't go out on any kind…

Unidentified Analyst

Management

(inaudible)

Craig Barnes

Management

Okay Martin [ph]? The unions that we have at our company are UASA and NUM.

Unidentified Analyst

Management

And you don't have AMCU at all.

Unidentified Analyst

Management

Two obvious questions. What are you actually offering? What have you got on the table for the various grades? You said, you are in talks and whatever but when might there actually be some kind of conclusion or timeframe do you perhaps have in your mind for this to come to an end?

Craig Barnes

Management

My own timeframe for the conclusion of talks is anything between three and six weeks. And I am not divulging what we have on offer for our employees. Allen? I am sorry, Adrian?

Adrian Hammond - BNP Paribas Cadiz

Management

Good morning, Adrian Hammond, BNP Cadiz. Could you just give us your outlook for grades for yields in FY14?

Craig Barnes

Management

Definitely we want to recover, what's it 20 million ton, Charles?

Unidentified Company Representative

Management

That's in line with what we have now.

Craig Barnes

Management

Yes.

Adrian Hammond - BNP Paribas Cadiz

Management

Thanks, and just a conclusion. What happens to the shares? Your Village Main Reef shares held in escrow? I know it was being planned for liquidation.

Craig Barnes

Management

We have pretty much put that on the backburner before I take a specific view on that. I haven't looked at the legal implications just yet. It's not something that I want to deal with any degree of urgency just yet either. We have dealt with it in terms of the financial treatment of that and at some point or another, we are going to sit down, myself and the executives at Village and we will have a discussion about it.

Adrian Hammond - BNP Paribas Cadiz

Management

Thanks.

Allan Cooke - JPMorgan

Management

Niël, it's Allan Cooke from JPMorgan. The Village share that you currently have, not the shares in escrow, what is the status there? Is there anything preventing you from distributing or selling those shares currently? If not, why are they classified as non-current investments on your balance sheet? Niël Pretorius: There is nothing preventing us from selling them. Craig, you could maybe elaborate on the accounting treatment.

Craig Barnes

Management

The treatment is available for sale of instruments but yes, they would be help under non-current because there is no plan really to sell them at this stage.

Allan Cooke - JPMorgan

Management

So you are not selling them immediately but okay.

Craig Barnes

Management

There is no restrictions on the 65 million of the 85 million.

Allan Cooke - JPMorgan

Management

Yes, and that's the 34.1 million that you are now showing in non-current investments.

Craig Barnes

Management

Full 85 million shares are shown there.

Allan Cooke - JPMorgan

Management

The full 85 million. Great. Then, just the stages at play for. I know you haven't spoken with the Village price there but perhaps from the shareholders perspective, is there any risk of contingent liability through the play for liquidation process and what's the quantum there of these?

Craig Barnes

Management

Allan, I don't think so. Without getting involved in discussion as to what lies where, I think our position has been very clearly stated in the sense announcement that we brought out a while ago and I am confident that that statement is solid but continuing liability is something that depends to a large extent on what is provided for in the Companies Act there. because remember Blyvoor is a legal entity. So even before you wonder whether, even Village at this stage, is carrying some sort of contingent liability, you have to go and look at what the Companies Act says with regards flows through responsibility and flow through liability. The last time that I looked, I think Village, said in a statement that they advanced a ZAR 190 million into Blyvoor over the last 12, 13 months. Liability, at least, when I used to be a lawyer and that long time ago, so I have probably forgotten most of what I was taught, but in those days, and Themba you can correct me if I am wrong, there would be liability on the part of the controlling entity. If it is shown that the independent legal personality of the subsidiary was abused to the advantage of the parent and to the detriment of other creditors and ZAR 190 million investment into this entity in order to build it, in order to stabilize it and so forth, that is not indicative of the abuse of cyclical personality. So penetrating the corporate veil in the first instance here, I think, is going to be very, very long shot. I would rather be the lawyer on the defendant side than on the plaintiff side on this one.

Allan Cooke - JPMorgan

Management

Okay, thanks. Then, maybe just finally the guidance. I think through the presentation you gave us some indication but in terms of you volumes, I think you said, your yield 0.2 gram a ton, your CapEx expectations. Are you still that targeting 140,000 to 150,000 ounces for financial year 2014?

Craig Barnes

Management

I think we can be a little bit more robust in our target. So there will be, but Charles says no. Yes, a 140,000 to 150,000. You caught my eye there.

Allan Cooke - JPMorgan

Management

So should we be factoring 140,000 to 150,000, so two million tons per month, 0.2 gram a ton recovered and then CapEx, what, ZAR 220 million, I think you said? Niël Pretorius: No, we are looking at much less than that. I think its ZAR 130 million sustaining capital and then there is about ZAR 80 million of the flotation fine grind which will rollover into this year. Just carry over. It is a timing issued. Some of the capital spend will still happen into this financial year. For all intents and purposes, yes, capital is going to around ZAR 130 million, the new capital. That includes, also the project that Niël mentioned. The gray water project that 20 million of that is going to be sourcing, I believe, cheaper water into the circuit. Then there is no reason why we can't make a sound on the gold this year than last year, at least 145,000, other than external dynamics. Okay. There's a question from Jana Marais from Sunday Times with regards to the issue at Blyvoor. Whether we foresee legal disputes as Village for other parties? I really can't say. There hasn't been any indication at this stage. It is really based though, I suppose it depends on the sort of pressure that supply. There will be legally issue or a legal dispute could be manufactured if there is some of a pressure point that gets pushed out enough and a lawyer who is ambitious enough to take the brief. Employees are obviously anxious, I would imagine, because whether or not they get paid in that regard, I suppose the only comment that I can make at this stage is that the old employee trust was established by the former DRDSA that's now called Ergo Mining Operations distributed ZAR…

Craig Barnes

Management

I just don’t know what he means by all-in below the line but I assume he is talking about all-in sustaining costs, which would be fairly in line with this but with inflation increases. Niël Pretorius: I am not surprised that it is not something that Allan has already asked.

Craig Barnes

Management

The low C-1 costs? Yes, I am not sure what that is, but I mean, all-in sustaining costs will be pretty much in line with this year. Maybe slightly up because of inflationary increases. Then we have already mentioned that we have covered the capital guidance for next year. Niël Pretorius: All right. Well, thank you very much, everybody. We are going to be around for a bit still. So if there are any more questions, we would be happy to take them and also please make use of the opportunity to shale our Chairman's hand, and see who has being driving it from behind the scenes. Thank you very much.