The nightmare ends and profits roll in
Can Tesla provide a pleasant shock at Hulamin?
Hulamin is in a strong position as vehicle producers start using more aluminium and the company takes control of its electricity and gas supply, writes Stafford Thomas
It has been a long time coming, but Hulamin has, at last, reported its best set of results since its unbundling and relisting by Tongaat Hulett in 2007. The producer of rolled and extruded aluminium products did it in style in its year to December. It roared in with revenue moving up 20% to R10.1bn and headline EPS (HEPS) more than trebling from 38c in 2015, the lowest since its relisting, to 119c. This bettered the previous HEPS peak of 95c, recorded way back in 2007. The trend in 2016 was also encouraging, with HEPS in the second half of Hulamin’s financial year coming in at 71c — compared with 48c in the first six months. However, the company’s results require more than just a superficial glance at changes in HEPS. It is a far more complex subject than that. For Hulamin 2015 was a nightmare year, during which its production was hit by load shedding by Eskom in the first quarter, a major maintenance shutdown in the second quarter and a shortage of its primary energy source, liquid...
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