Earnings Labs

Gold Fields Limited (GFI)

Q4 2006 Earnings Call· Thu, Aug 3, 2006

$43.17

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Gold Fields Fourth Quarter Fiscal Year End 2006 Conference Call. My name is Anthony and I will be your coordinator for today. At this time all participants are in listen-only mode. We will be facilitating a question and answer session towards the end of today’s conference. [Operator Instructions]. I would now like to turn the presentation over to your host for today’s call Mr. Ian Cockerill, Chief Executive of Gold Fields. Please proceed sir.

Ian Cockerill - Chief Executive Officer

Analyst

Thanks Anthony, and good afternoon everybody and welcome to this phone call. With me here today, I have Nick Holland our Chief Financial Officer, I have Brendan Walker, in charge of the South African Operation as well as Terence Goodlace who will be talking later on about our International Operation. And it is good afternoon today, because this is the fourth quarter fiscal year 2006 feedback and it’s also the final of the year, the fiscal year 2006. So another year is over and I think it is fair to say that in the current environment, it certainly a lot more fun winning in gold company than it was a year ago. As you can see from our results, it has been another pleasing quarter, very much inline with the guidance that we previously gave to the market. For this quarter, we manage to maintain our production levels at 1.02 million ounces of gold. We certainly achieved a much better production from the Kloof mine, much more inline with what we expect on the sustainable basis. With the high gold prices we received our margins improved from 32% to 38%. Our cash cost were essentially flat quarter-on-quarter at $376 an ounce. Our operating profit improved 47% to $260 million and net earnings also rose 25% from $95 million for the quarter. And we were able to declare a final year dividend of 110 South African cents per share which combined with the interim dividend of 40 cents per share, means of the total dividend for this year is 150 South African cents. If one looks at the complete financial of year, gold produced with very much inline with last year with 4.1 million ounces of gold, cash cost were up 8% year-on-year to $358 per ounce, but that despite incredibly high input cost pressure. And I think bearing in mind the inflation of the impact of many of these things and 8% year-on-year increase is a very creditable performance. Our operating profit rose almost two times to $681 million and our bottom line earnings were up an impressive 10 times, $217 million. We also concluded the acquisition of the Cerro Corona project in northern Peru. Bolivar Gold Choco 10 mine in Venezuela and we commence developments on the Cerro Corona project in Peru as well. We also increased our interest in Sino Gold to 13.9% and we also increased our interest in western areas to 18.9%. So I think it’s fair to say that all in all it’s been a very successful year, on one way the previous efforts to reposition Gold Fields for a tough operating environment that paid off quite handsomely. Clearly, when higher revenue makes good cost control this can lead to good margin for investor, the investors now accounting that we are very proud to deliver. With that, brief introduction let me hand it over to Nick taking through some of the details on the financial.

Nicholas Holland - Chief Financial Officer

Analyst

Thanks Ian, and good afternoon. Looking at our income statements results over the last quarter, the increase in our gold price up to $628 an ounce from $555 an ounce has enabled us to increase our revenue from $602 million to $683 million. Our costs over the last quarter went up 2% to $426 million and that’s against the background of a 4% increase in volumes in South Africa, (indiscernible) also effectively are resourcing for a step up in our development that planned up a (indiscernible) operation this next year and Brendan will talk more about that. And the fact that’s our fleet maintenance cost in Choco because of the nature of the contract in effect of higher rates are paid as the which increase those, that impacts this June quarter as well as the fuel price, we’ve seen the oil price go up over the last quarter and affect the diesel costs in Ghana from $0.78 or $0.88 a liter and (indiscernible) mine will use about 61 million liters a year you could see the impact of that very quickly. We also add the first four quarter of Choco 10 in our results, remember the mining that was acquired on the first of March, so last quarter we only showed one month of results, this quarter we’re shining a full quarter, so of course there is going to be a cost and the revenue impact of that. And also we were impacted by the cost of a fairly extensive plant shutdown that quite honest which doesn’t happen, so I guess the background of those going to affects us as well as the ongoing cost pressure on our inputs that we’re feeling overtime, we’re very satisfied with the strict control that we’ve maintained over our cost. And going forward, I…

Brendan Walker - Head of South African Operations

Analyst

Thanks Nick. Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. The South African operational strategy from mine, was successful revenue strategy as previously reported. We continue to mine, leverage those values to maintain quality and profitable ounces. The open-pit grade is 92,000 in kilogram with 7.6 grams per ton. And this quarter we achieved 7.5 grams per ton. The increase from last quarter is (indiscernible) time which I elaborate on later. Cost production increased on about 4% also 22,000 ounces quarter-on-quarter. Driefontein manage to maintain its gold production despite the Sino Gold from the number one (indiscernible) that featured in the previous quarter. Cost production have soon increased significantly and at Beatrix there was a slight deduction. Meadows developed increased by approximately 9% to 25 kilometers, inline with our strategy of reinvesting some of the increased margin in our ore bodies. Operating cost increased marginally on mining as a result of the increased (indiscernible) and developing volumes that include. The increase in operating cost was offset by the increase in gold production and total cash cost decreased from $415 an ounce to $400 an ounce. Operating profit increased by 88% to $142 million, resulting in the operating margin increasing from 22% to 34%. Capital expenditure on the South African operations for the quarter amounted $35 million. Turning to Driefontein, Driefontein has gold production of 285,000 ounces driven inline with the previous quarter production. This was achieved as our previously started despite and the fact that, we no long ahead of our 25,000 ounces from the number one from Sino, which was created in last quarter. And resulted from higher than expected growth on that number 5 and number 4 shots as we were mining in those areas. But that will be unsustainable going forward as we revert back to the average reserved yield.…

Terence Goodlace - Senior Vice President, Head of International Operations

Analyst

Thank you, Brendan, and good afternoon all. After the international operations reduced for the quarter with attributable gold production down to 350,000 ounces and managed productions at 417,000 ounces versus 450,000 in the previous quarter. The reduction was driven primarily by lower grade with volumes processed and treated at similar levels to the previous quarter. Federal cash costs increased to $335 per ounce and were driven up by the lower gold production. Operating cost increase by 6% to a $149 million and the drivers were increased as a top line synapse and the full quarterly inclusion of the newly acquired Choco 10 mine. At the gold cost $626 per ounce, we had operating margins for the international operations of 45% and an operating profit of $117 million. Operating margins at the mines, all exceeded 46% other than Sino which disappointed at 34%. Capital spend for the quarter was $45 million for the majority of the spend from the bigger mines. Gold production at Choco was below our plan at 185,000 ounces and last quarters at 176,000 ounces and we had consistent deep reach performance and lower production through the CIL plant. Throughput at the CIL plant was affected by the lack of sufficient stuffs of competent ore. Increases to the total operating cost at Choco reflect high maintenance as Nick has said earlier and increased fuel costs and these were offset by other reductions in terms of equipment higher and lower contract mining. Capital for the quarter was spent primarily on pre-stripping of the (indiscernible) pit, the fleet pack construction and the purchase of additional mining fleet to buy down cost. The targets on the feasibility study towards increasing throughput of the CIL plant is on track and is still due for completion by calendar year-end. For the upcoming quarter…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instruction]. Our first question comes from Victor Flores from HSBC. Please proceed. Victor Flores - HSBC: Thanks, good morning and you made a comment, that sort of going first with my question which is the management of South African assets given that the wrangle prices now gone up and perhaps the temptation to go back to the Wal-Mart strategy. And I am wondering just how do you manage this higher cost, sorry higher Rand price environment with the temptation of mines from lower grade material?

Ian Cockerill

Analyst

Thanks Victor, and it is a challenge there is always a temptation to the operational guys to try and mind the easier low grade stuff. As I say that Brendan is looking at me and smiling but it really is a question as we made a commitment, we are going to continue mining that our average ores that upgrades and we are looking to capture the additional margin of these higher prices were given. And as I said, we are going to reinvest in our ore bodies, we are going to increase our mining, the development that we are bringing into these mines to improve the mining flexibility. And we’ll also be looking to reinvestment of those profits in projects that will ensure the greater longevity of these mines. And lastly we think that shovel (ph) deserve to be very patient and they deserve to also benefit from the better prices and they should see that reflected in better dividend. We are not changing a divided policies as yet but clearly as we get higher prices there is no doubt that that should flow through into stronger dividend to share holders. So that’s how we are going to manage it, how we are going to use life and money. Victor Flores – HSBC: Thanks, if I could just ask a follow-up, how much flexibility does the mine management team have in terms of managing relative to the current gold price relative to a reserve base that is calculated as you point out on a trialing gold price?

Ian Cockerill

Analyst

This, I mean obviously we look to these guys to produce the base plan after stated price and the planning process and we’ve taken a 100,000 Rand a kilogram. That is consulted to current prices, but remember a year ago, we were at 90,000 Rand a kilogram. So these things can change so we don’t want to get too carried away but if the guard comes to us with a good motivation just to why going into a specific area is worthwhile, we would look at it and we would see whether or not had added value to that particular mine. But the basic proceed is that we are going to mine as to the current ores and upgrades. Victor Flores – HSBC: Right. Thanks, Ian.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Mayostard (ph) from Royal Bank of Canada. Please proceed. George - Royal Bank of Canada : Hi its actually George. Just a question for Nick. Nick just with the tax rate for the quarter is a little bit higher than expected assuming margins from mine of these levels a little bit high and makes -- what do work on in 2007?

Nicholas Holland

Analyst

I think (indiscernible) because as you are rightly saying, it has gone in to loss. There is a number of factors behind that. In our last quarter we had a big deferred tax credit adjustments at 16 million Rand related to reduction in tax rates in Ghana. And obviously that has had an impact in comparing quarter-on-quarter. You’ve heard about the big increase in the exploration spend this quarter which is non-deductible. And also last quarter we had an exchange gain of 65 million Rand relating to the funds, the warehouse for the Bolivar transaction which is also no tax for last quarter. So all of these have conspired to push up the overall tax rate for the quarter. But I think going forward, looking at the kind of process we are now, I would use a weighted average tax rate of about 34%, 35% at these sort of prices and that varying mining that’s a blended tax rate even that you have the mining formula in South Africa which has the margin rate of 45%, a 5% of window on the revenue. Ghana has tax rate now of 25%, Australia has 13%, and Venezuela has 34%. So those are the various tax rate but as I said, the weighted average about 34% I don’t think you will be too far off. George - Royal Bank of Canada : Again just another one on the payout ratio, I think you got a two times cover at the moment given the fact that they are generating quite a bit of cash. Is it change that we should look at, sort of a payout ratio?

Nicholas Holland

Analyst

Look, as Ian said earlier we are not going to change our dividend policy, it is two times cover but remember there is a caveat in that policy as I said, it depends on investment opportunity. And I think as you’ve heard Ian say we think we got a lot of projects to spend that money on. Interestingly enough this question came up this morning when we were doing our presentation to the South African market here. And someone asked what is your future capital expenditure budget and what we did reveal is that we are planning to spend 4.2 billion Rand next year on capital which includes 1.7 million Rand on the Cerro Corona project. And those increases at the South African operations as well. And that is before considering the full impacts of the drop-down projects there is something enhanced the KAI project, I think it was about 90 million Rand, and that’s the reason for that is that project is more advanced. But if the board approves the two projects this month then we’re going to have re-look at that budget bearing in mind that those projects will have funded as five to ten year period. So, I think the capital demands on this business particularly given the fact that we are trying to grow the business in certain areas which is for example Cerro Corona project and maintain our current production which is the objective of the Driefontein project. We are going to be spending some other capital. So I think its significant cash difficult of in the business even after those requirements, we would certainly reevaluate our path but certainly not policy at this stage. George - Royal Bank of Canada : And if you do a few drop down projects, what do we look at next year? 200 million extra CapEx, there kind of going forward?

Nicholas Holland

Analyst

George, I don’t think we want to give too much details at this stage. Once we’ve approved these projects which hopefully will be in the next 2.5 weeks or so. The intent would be to give a detailed account of these projects that full capital profiles et cetera. And I think then we will give you better handles, so that you can model to these things but before just be patient with us. George - Royal Bank of Canada : Okay, thanks. Just last something if you bring [technical difficulty] could understand and coming and mention about the maintenance contract to talk with, that it’s a nature of the contract, what would you actually mean by the nature of the contract, are we expected to see any move, kind of rises because of the maintenance contracts coming through at fulcrum or was this that we never worked on?

Terence Goodlace

Analyst

Hi George, its Terence, we have more contracts in other words the contracts with specified rates for different hours for different machines. And its goes up in 6000 hours blocks. So once you move from say 6000 to 12000 hours you go into a different rate. And so its goes up and down and right now its 90% of the fleet is in the 12000 to 18000 bracket and that’s when we do the major changes. For instance on the 9 down tracks, that right will come down, right now it was about $65 per hour but it drops to I think round about $47 per hour once we move into 18000 bracket. So that’s just where we are with that fleet, that was all bought at once and all of it has moved into this major change up area of the mall contract. We didn’t do any smoothing as far this is concerned, so what you see is what you get. George - Royal Bank of Canada : Okay, so you might actually see some relief coming on the next 6 months.

Terence Goodlace

Analyst

Most of the vehicles at around about 15000 hours, bear in mind that we do about 1800 hours per quarter we’ll soon be into 18000 hour bracket and then we go to some other high rate. But again, that’s not with the all the equipment some equipment it goes up it just on the nature of the equipment but on the big dump trucks it will go down once we move into the 18000 racket. George - Royal Bank of Canada : And again thanks (indiscernible).

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] We have no further question sir, I will turn it back to you for closing remarks. Ian Cockerill - Chief Executive Officer: Anthony, thank you very much indeed and thank you to everybody for listening in today. There is a more detailed presentation which is available on our website as a presentation that we gave this morning, clearly most of you have actually had a chance to see that. Once again thank you for listening and we look forward to talking to you again in 3 months time. Thank you and good afternoon.

Operator

Operator

Thank you for your participation in today’s conference. This concludes the presentation, you may now disconnect. Everyone have a wonderful day.