Rhigos
11 Aug 2017
Re: Div Mostly progressive but slightly erratic dividend one reason to buy if SP does not rise liable to have negative overall return. The growth prospects according to forecasts however are excellent:GROWTHTurnover 24.1%EBIT 109%Pre-tax profit 105%Normalised EPS 88.9%Now that RIO and others have stopped spending most of the cash generated expanding production facilities by organic and as well as acquisitions. Concentrating on improving efficiency and cutting costs and returning cash to investors via dividends and more dubiously share buy backs I think mining shares deserve a better rating.Today, so far, my best performing share is Geiger Counter (GCL) a uranium mine IT. +2.5%. Hope nothing to do with Wrong-un and Chump inflammatory language! I know related to GCL NAV RNS and I have heard that there is now a shortage of uranium because suppressed prices since Japanese tsunami has resulted in a lack of investment in uranium mines.
trueblog
04 Aug 2017
Div Looking at the Div history, if the final is more than the interim (big if but normally the case) the final could be 180-200pThe upward trajectory in Div is pretty impressiveWhy is this not reflected in the sp? Is it still the uncertainty about the sustainability of the io price or is there a possibility of a major rerating when the market realises the disconnect?
gamesinvestor
03 Aug 2017
Re: Results "E&M bloke: "Okaaaaaay ... on your head be it, J-S. I suppose a Terex can shift anything.""LK -- I know even less about iron ore than the E&M bloke, so on the strength of that sound knowledge I upped my stake last night at 3400Games -- ever one to make a knowledgeable judgement with his wad, or some of it at least !! Divi is a few moments away.
LK Hyman
02 Aug 2017
Re: Results Games,"let's hope RIO doesn't do something stupid and buy a load of half axsed assets with any surplus they have."I think they learned their lesson with Alcan and the Mozambique coal clusterfuck. Mind you, I was amused to see, buried in the small print, that they have written off the Roughrider uranium deposit in Canada. It's less than six years since they outbid Cameco to buy the owner of Roughrider for $578 million. So, six years to go from half a billion bucks to nothing ... nada ... zip ... that's not very clever, is it?[link] these were excellent results by any standard so let me not be too critical.I continue to be fascinated by the fact that the Simandou iron ore project in Guinea ... which is clearly a dead duck ... continues to be run, not by the iron ore division of RIO, which is what one would expect, seeing as Simandou is an iron ore project, but by the Energy and Minerals division. One imagines the discussion in the board room:Jean Sebastien: "I want you energy and minerals lads to run Simandou. Can you hack it?"E&M Bloke: " Say what, JS? I know nothing about iron ore. I'm an Energy and Minerals bloke. Wouldn't it be better to let the iron ore boys run it? I mean, they DO know about iron ore."J-S: "I know you know nothing about iron ore, but nevertheless I want you to run it. I mean, how hard can it be? So get out to Conakry on the next flight and see what you can do."E&M bloke: "Okaaaaaay ... on your head be it, J-S. I suppose a Terex can shift anything."It's very strange. One can only assume that RIO is putting out a not very subtle signal that the project is a munter and it would love someone to take it off RIO's hands I dunno. Wasn't there some Israeli bloke who was keen on that neck of the woods? Beny someone or other? Sounded a bit of a wide boy but maybe he'd take it off RIO's hands if the price was right. There's no doubt that it's an awfully long way from anywhere where there is any demand for iron ore ... and it is in Africa which always complicates matters.LKH on the flybridge
Lupo di mare
02 Aug 2017
Re: Results I don't think that it's a case of "some are never happy", games, it's just looking at the figures and trying to determine whether they are now valued at more or less than they were pre results.They're mightily reliant on Pilbara, and the price of Iron Ore; so any hiccup in China, or an extra nasty cyclone at Pilbara would impact Rio. Being big in Iron ore is also a strength in good times, of course.Anyway, it remains some 2% of my portfolio and I'll live with the down times, as long as they yield well. Btw, I wonder what they mean by "additional returns" - not buybacks, I hope."..it is the board's intention to supplement the ordinary dividends with additional returns to shareholders."
gamesinvestor
02 Aug 2017
Re: Results It seems some are never happy.The results look great, and they seem to have done a few good things, apart from the stupid buy back of course.Reducing the debt to $7.5Bn is excellent considering the years cash generation wasn't far behind at $6.3Bn.Offloading the coal assets seems like a reasonable long term decision, unlike Glencore's trading ethos to buy more in the short to medium term.With commodity prices increased over the last year or so, let's hope RIO doesn't do something stupid and buy a load of half axsed assets with any surplus they have.They'll be pumping up the managements bonuses with the share buy backs.Games -- I'll hang on to this at 1% of my portfolio, as the income looks relatively secure for now at least.
Lupo di mare
02 Aug 2017
Re: Results You're right, JW, below expectations. It's a long report to go through, but here's what ShareCast has to say on the report."(ShareCast News) - After slashing costs and selling assets, Rio Tinto said it would return $3bn of cash to shareholders for the first half of 2017, but revenues, profits and the dividend came in shy of forecasts.The mining giant generated operating cash flow of $6.3bn in the six months to 30 June, up 95% year on year, on revenue up 24% to $19.3bn thanks mainly to higher average commodity prices.Having also cut $2.1bn from its operating cash costs in 2016 and 2017, meeting its target six months ahead of schedule, this helped it almost triple profit before finance items and tax to £6.2bn from £2.3bn.Underlying earnings of $3.9bn were generated, more than double the 2016 first half, though net earnings of $3.3bn were $0.6bn lower than underlying earnings after foreign exchange losses of $0.4bn and $0.2bn of impairment charges.Earnings per share rose more than 150% to 219.4 cents, which was short of the consensus forecast of 240 cents.An interim dividend of 110 cents (83.13p) per share was declared as well as a new $1bn share buyback to be completed by the end of the year. The market was expecting a dividend of $1.24.The share buyback represent 75% of 2017 first half underlying earnings, and comes on top of the $0.5bn buyback programme announced in February 2017.Net debt was cut to $7.6bn from $9.6bn at the end of Decmber.Chief executive Jean-Sébastien Jacques felt they were strong results and said: "We are now shifting gear to focus on the untapped value from our productivity programme and continue to strengthen our portfolio to build higher returns for the future."Rio Tinto confirmed the sale of its Coal & Allied thermal coal business in Australia for $2.7bn in June and is expected to be completed in the coming months, with Jacques saying the group was "making good progress" on growth projects at Oyu Tolgoi, Amrun and Silvergrass.Last week the Serious Fraud Office launched a corruption probe into the giant miner's historic activities in Guinea, with Rio Tinto in discussions to sell its stake in the Simandou project in Guinea to Chinalco following the signing of a non-binding agreement last October. June's purchase by Yancoal of Rio's Coal & Allied for $2.69bn has been approved by shareholders and .Looking to the second half, Jacques said production guidance is unchanged from the second quarter operations review.Rio Tinto shares fell more than 2% in early trade to 3,419p by 0830 BST on Wednesday.Analyst Yuen Low at Shore Capital said the market was likely to be disappointed and he would have preferred higher interim dividend as opposed to increased share buybacks.While results were short of revenue of $19.52bn, net profit of $4.3bn and EPS of $2.4 per share, he still considered the numbers to be "decent".He noted that Rio is guiding for additional cumulative free cash flow of $5bn from 2017 to the end of 2021 from productivity improvements, with capex expected to remain at circa $5.0bn in 2017 and $5.5bn in each of 2018 and 2019.
Jack_Walsh
02 Aug 2017
Re: Results Or a red day!Below market expectations, I guess.
Grill Bimsie
02 Aug 2017
Re: Results Very good news that the div has been restored to "normal" level after last year's drastic cut.Fingers crossed for a good market reaction.Cheers,
Jack_Walsh
02 Aug 2017
Results Look pretty decent!Expecting a blue day.
Eadwig
26 Jul 2017
Oh dear - Serbia & Lithium Well, I think its a mistake, but I guess RIO know a tad more about mining than me, and perhaps even have inside knowledge on the top three or four producers and why miners like SQM (with enough Lithium resources to cover the whole of global demand if they chose to put in the cap ex to extract it in such quantities) aren't going to make a move that will cut this project off at the knees once/if the lithium price gets high enough. The latter may have water problems, but higher prices overcome all obstacles eventually. RIO should tread carefully. Obviously this is based on all the recent announcements and predictions of EV production rising faster than expected, probably much faster. I don't disagree with those. In fact I think they will go faster yet with targets like the UK announced today to do away with new diesel vehicles by 2040 being easily met because I doubt anyone will be selling new diesels long before then. An announcement to get existing diesels off the roads (and rails!) would be a lot more courageous.Meanwhile, no one has mentioned the fraud actions going ahead against RIO, least of all the markets!Major Miner Rio Tinto Signs MOU to Fast Track Lithium ProjectRio Tinto has spent $90 million so far on the development of the Jadar lithium project in Serbia and has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the government of Serbia to fast track the development of a deposit containing lithium.The company expects to make a final investment decision and start construction at the Jadar project, currently at the prefeasibility stage, in 2020. If all the permits are obtained and viability is confirmed, lithium production will start in 2023, Rio Tinto said on Monday (July 24).Rio Tinto discovered the 136-million-tonne reserve, named after the Jadar Valley, in 2004, and has invested $90 million so far on developing the property.Mining and Energy Minister Aleksandar Antić, who signed the MOU on behalf of the Serbian government, said the agreement will speed up activities related to the process of opening the mine and beginning of the exploitation of lithium.“Progress of the Jadar project in a timely manner, and its implementation, will make Serbia the key producer of the two very important elements — lithium and boron — both of which are important for modern development,” he added.As the electric car revolution continues to unfold, interest in lithium is increasing. The metal is an essential component of the lithium-ion batteries used to power these vehicles.According to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, surging demand for electric vehicles is expected to push demand for lithium-ion batteries above 400 GWh by 2025. As a result, most analysts expect global lithium output to reach 400,000 to 500,000 tonnes by the same year.But the lithium industry is expected to struggle to keep up with this soaring demand, as bringing projects into the market is not always easy. New mines can take years to start producing at full speed, and a lack of timely investments could curb supply in the years to come.“Rio Tinto is one company that could throw a lot of investment at lithium,” Simon Moores, managing director of Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, commented on Monday. “[This project] will still be a post 2022 prospect but one to watch.”the way - the standard EV car battery chosen by the Chinese government (as I understand these things), does NOT contain Lithium, but is a cobalt, manganese and nickel 1/3 or each mix. China is the largest car market and also has the largest number of of EV vehicles in use of any country.
II Editor
06 Jul 2017
NEW ARTICLE: Sectors to buy and where to take profits "It's a while since we debated the value stocks versus quality growth stocks argument. At the end of 2016 and moving into this year, it was a big talking point - after an incredible rally over a number of years, value was about to come back into ..."[link]
Hydrogen Economy
29 Jun 2017
Re: CFO offloading "wasn't there also something recently about eye wateringly high increases in Aussie corporation tax, or was I imagining that?"No worries mate"In the 2016–17 Budget, the Government announced that it intended to progressively reduce the corporate tax rate from 30 per cent to 25 per cent."Still reduction it doesn't start to kick in for big Companies until 23-24 and hits 25% in 26-27.Time for a few stubbies before then,H2[link]
gamesinvestor
29 Jun 2017
Re: CFO offloading ""presumably to cover eye-watering Aussie income tax""HE -- wasn't there also something recently about eye wateringly high increases in Aussie corporation tax, or was I imagining that?Games
Hydrogen Economy
29 Jun 2017
Re: CFO offloading Games "Not sure if this is significant, but here goes :-20-Feb-17 Sell Christopher Lynch 3,617.88p 6,739 £243,808.9231-May-17 Sell Christopher Lynch 3,108.01p 7,582 £235,649.31His shareholding is deemed to be :-Christopher Lynch 27,412 £863,340.96unless something is wrong here, his sales are a chunky % of his remaining holding."Both sales are in connection with Performance Share Plan shares being vested, he and other directors sold just under half of the issued shares- presumably to cover eye-watering Aussie income tax. No indication of lack of confidence. The only remarkable thing about this is the frequency of PSP issue.H2
