ALUMINA, the minority partner in the Alcoa World Alumina & Chemicals group, has disappointed investors with its quarterly profit share from the joint venture.
Alumina has a 40 per cent stake in AWAC, the world’s largest alumina producer. The US company Alcoa holds the rest. Alcoa, also listed in Australia, announced its fourth-quarter earnings before the market opened.
The figures showed Alumina received $US97 million of fully franked dividends fromAWAC during the quarter, bringing the total for the year to $US234 million.
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Ben Potter of IG Markets said: ”Disappointment over Alcoa’s share of profit from AWAC looks to be weighing on Alumina.”
Alcoa forecast a 12 per cent increase in global aluminum demand this year. John Bevan, Alumina’s chief executive, said the outlook for the industry was positive.
”Demand continues to grow, and the development of daily and weekly alumina indices supports the change to indexed based pricing. The changes will impact our results progressively as new contracts are implemented.”
Mr Bevan said the strong Australian dollar had resulted in revaluations that put a $US45 million dent in AWAC’s results. Alumina is due to report its full year results on February 10.
At the close yesterday Alumina shares were down 11¢ at $2.44; Alcoa was up 3¢ at $16.04.
Source: www.smh.com.au
