Headline earnings per share for the half-year ended 31 December 2006 are expected to be about 2.97 cents, up 27% on the figure for the comparable six months in 2005 and in line with management expectations, Petmin Limited (Petmin) said in a trading statement today.
This is in spite of an approximate doubling of the company's weighted average number of issued shares to 441 205 000, primarily to fund the Somkhele Anthracite Project in KwaZulu-Natal, which is scheduled to begin generating revenue during the second quarter of 2007.
The company expects basic earnings per share for the period under review to be about 8.73 cents, down 51% on the figure for the comparable six months in 2005.
The difference between headline and basic earnings per share, Petmin says, is due mainly to profit of R33.8 million generated on the acquisition of subsidiary Springlake Holdings (Pty) Limited in the half-year ended 31 December 2005 and recognised in the basic earnings per share calculation. Without the once-off profit of R33.8 million the basic earnings per share for the half-year ended 31 December 2005 would have been 2.34 cents.
Petmin announced in December 2006 that it had entered into an agreement to sell its entire shareholding in Baobab Mining and Exploration (Pty) Ltd for £2.5 million, and at 31 December 2006 all of the suspensive conditions - save for the ministerial consent required by Section 11 of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act - had been obtained. Had all of the conditions of the sale been concluded by 31 December 2006, the basic earnings per share for the half-year ended 31 December 2006 would have been approximately 15 cents, down 15% on the figure for the half-year ended 31 December 2005.
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