Our opinion on the current state of SIBANYE-S(SSW)Sibanye (SSW) is a mining house that has been on a rapid acquisition trail, accumulating platinum and gold mines in South Africa and America and 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. Froneman has said that he intends to retire in about 2024/5 but plans to double the size of the company before he does. 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. On 3rd July 2024, Business Day reported that Sibanye had retrenched 11,000 workers over 18 months.
In its results for the six months to 30th June 2024, the company reported headline earnings of R137m compared with R5,891m in the previous period. Lower commodity prices caused revenue to decline by 9%. The company said, "The Group maintained a sound financial position with undemanding balance sheet leverage of 1.43x net debt: adjusted EBITDA at 30 June 2024, well below our covenant levels."
In an update for the 3 months to 30th September 2024, the company reported EBITDA up 9% and EBITDA from South African gold operations up 292%. The gold price in rands was up 24%.
In a trading statement for the year to 31st December 2024, the company estimated that HEPS would be between 63c and 67c compared with 63c in the previous year. The company took an R8,8bn impairment loss on its PGM operations in the US, which is not reflected in HEPS.
Technically, the share has been in a downward trend since March 2022, mainly because of falling commodity prices. On 13th February 2024, the company announced that CEO Neal Froneman would be retiring on 30th September 2025 and will be replaced by Richard Stewart.