Our opinion on the current state of SSW
Sibanye (SSW) is a mining house which has been on a rapid acquisition trail accumulating platinum and gold mines in South Africa and America and is now broadening its scope to include base metals and minerals, especially so-called "green" metals. The company is run by Neal Froneman who is well-known in the mining industry for his toughness, expertise, and experience. The acquisition of the Stillwater palladium mine in America was a brilliant move, but it added $2,2bn of debt to SGL's balance sheet which left it very highly geared. That debt has now been substantially cleared. Sibanye has also bought Lonmin for shares which gave it a very valuable extraction plant but resulted in more than 13 300 job losses. Sibanye is now the world's largest producer of platinum group metals (PGMs). Froneman has said that he intends to retire in about 2024/5 but intends to double the size of the company before he does. The price of PGM's has been rising, especially rhodium and palladium (produced by Stillwater). Sibanye is also considering moving into the base minerals used in motor vehicle batteries like vanadium, copper, nickel, and lithium. On 1st June 2021 the company announced a share buy-back program to repurchase up to 5% of its issued shares. In its results for the year to 31st December 2022 the company reported a profit of R19bn compared with R33,8bn in 2021. The CEO, Neal Froneman, said, "Global macro influences, including significant inflationary cost pressures globally, ongoing supply chain disruptions and a deteriorating economic outlook, which reflected in lower demand and lower prices for the metals we produce". On 30th May 2022 the company announced that it had received notice from Appian Capital for it to defend itself in a court case arising from its decision to back out of a deal to buy two mines for $1,2bn. On 30th June 2022 the company announced its intention to increase its stake in Keliber, a Finnish lithium producer to 80% at a cost of about R7,7bn. On 13th March 2023 the company announced that there had been damage to the Stillwater shaft infrastructure which would temporarily affect production. In its results for the six months to 30th June 2023 the company reported headline earnings of R5,89bn compared to R11,94bn in the previous period. The company said, "The impacts of the precipitous decline in PGM prices and operational disruptions at our US and European regions, were cushioned by a significantly improved financial contribution from the SA gold operations".Technically, the upward trend which has been in place since July 2018 came to an end in March 2021 reflecting weaker commodity prices, loadshedding and the flooding at Stillwater. A notable achievement was the 5-year wage deal which locks in wage increases of 6,3%. We believe that in time Sibanye will continue to make new all-time record highs in time in due to superb strategic management - so this drop in the share price is probably a buying opportunity. Froneman believes that Sibanye shares are undervalued and we agree with him, but everything will depend on the prices of the metals which he sells.
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