Kumba shares come off the boil after spiking on dividend news
Shares in Kumba Iron Ore were trading lower on the JSE on Wednesday morning, following a 17% spike on Tuesday after the miner said it was resuming dividend payments. Kumba, which operates the Sishen mine in the Northern Cape, Africa’s biggest iron ore mine, said on Tuesday that it planned to resume dividends after a two-year hiatus caused by plunging prices. The payouts would be “discretionary” in the future, rather than based on an earnings ratio, to ensure the ability to weather a downturn, CEO Themba Mkhwanazi said. Kumba shares were trading 1.63% lower at R199.70 on Wednesday morning. Anglo American, Kumba’s majority owner, rose more than 7% on Tuesday, and added another 0.2% on Wednesday morning. Price caution Mkhwanazi, who correctly predicted in February that his company’s commodity would plunge 40%, is wary of the recent recovery in prices. Iron ore has rallied over the past six weeks, topping $70 a tonne on a steel-making recovery in China, the largest user. Prices would pr...
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