Rana Gruber ASA

OSE:RANA

Earnings Call Analysis

Earnings Call Transcript 2024-Q2

[Gunnar Moe, executive]

Welcome to this presentation of Rana Gruber's results for the second quarter and first half of 2024. My name is Gunnar Moe, and I am the CEO at Rana Gruber. And with me today, I have our CFO, Erlend Høyen. We will now take you through our operational and financial performance, and you are welcome to send us questions during our presentation by using the Q&A feature. Questions will be answered at the end of the session.

Let's start with the highlights for the second quarter. Second quarter is normally an eventful quarter and our most important quarter to improve and maintain our processing equipment. Second quarter is always a quarter with lower production in all parts of our process due to the annual maintenance stop.

The reduced production in the period in combination with higher maintenance costs means higher cash cost per ton. This year, we also had an unexpected failure on one of the conveyor belts in the underground mine, which resulted in higher cost than the initial plan.

Safety is a high priority during this maintenance stops, and we always focus on improving our safety measures. Therefore, I'm proud and happy to conclude that we had no production-related injuries this quarter. All segments contributed with stronger sales in the quarter. On the hematite side, we saw a record high volume with almost 9 shipments in the quarter.

We also see an increasing production and sales on the magnetite side, and we are now in position to produce at least 150,000 tons of magnetite per year. Despite some headwinds from external factors, Rana Gruber stays committed to the dividend story. And the Board of Directors decided to pay out a quarterly dividend of NOK 2.23 per share for the second quarter of 2024. This is the 14th quarter in a row with dividends since we became public and corresponds to a policy of paying out between 50% and 70% of the net profit.

Now some words about people and environment. As mentioned on the previous slide, the extensive maintenance work was carried out without any injuries. Safety remains our top priority for employees, and we will always try to improve our standard and safety culture.

Rana Gruber is committed to be a leader in the transition to a greener iron ore industry. However, due to longer lead times from machines, technical improvements and higher costs, we see that reaching the 2025 target in a cost-effective manner is becoming increasingly challenging. Therefore, the Board of Rana Gruber has decided to move away from the 2025 goal and instead focus on a gradually reduction while maintaining our position as the frontrunner in the iron ore market.

As mentioned, we continued the strong production trend from the previous quarters with 421,000 metric tons concentrate despite a longer and more extensive maintenance stop. This was one of the most extensive annual maintenance stop executed since Rana Gruber became public and with strategic importance for the Fe65 and M40 project. Still it's too early to see results from the stop, and we will, as previous years, give the market an extensive update on our Capital Markets Day in November.

Magnetite production, on the other hand, is increasing, and we are always on track to reach 150,000 tons per year. This is in line with our goal for the strategic project.

Now I will leave the word to our CFO, Erlend Høyen.

[Erlend Høyen, executive]

Thank you, Gunnar. Hi, everyone. Our revenue for the second quarter of 2024 increased, both when we compare to last quarter and to the corresponding quarter in 2023. The revenue ended at NOK 548 million compared to NOK 349 million last year. The increased revenue compared to last year is mainly due to the increased prices in the quarter, the positive lagged effects from the previous quarter and higher volumes sold for all of our 3 product groups. .

Additionally, the depreciation of the Norwegian currency against U.S. dollars and euro has continued to contribute positively also for this quarter. Going forward, we expect that magnetite sales will increase in line with the production and thus be a more important factor in the upcoming year's revenues.

Our cash costs ended at a total of NOK 273.7 million, which corresponds to NOK 648 per metric tons produced or approximately $60 per ton. Compared to the last year's second quarter, the increase beyond the general hit from inflation and the financial situation we had on electric hedges last year, is mainly linked to the more extensive maintenance work done in the processing plant, the increased removal of waste rock in the quarter and the unexpected failure of one of our conveyor belts in the underground mine.

Compared to Q1 for this year. The absolute cash cost is at the same level. But as Gunnar mentioned, the reduced production affects the cost per ton figures in the second quarter.

As you can see from the illustration in the middle, mining and processing as well as R&D and admin costs are still the main cost components in our cost base. Following the current cash position and cost position, operational optimization will be key going forward and an update on cash costs and CapEx will be given during the Capital Markets update in November.

Some comments on some of the figures here. EBITDA increased to NOK 205 million from NOK 93.7 million last year, mainly due to the increase in the revenue. In the second quarter, the pretax profit was adjusted with negative NOK 20.4 million related to unrealized changes in the company's hedging portfolio, resulting in an adjusted net profit of NOK 137.4 million, up from NOK 106.1 million of last year.

This gives us an adjusted EPS of NOK 3.71 compared to NOK 2.86 last year. And by following our dividend policy, the Board decided to pay NOK 2.23 in dividend per share for the second quarter.

Moving over to cash flow. The total net cash flow from operations in the second quarter amounted to negative NOK 27 million. Included in this is a tax payment of NOK 105 million as well as a reduction in payables, which is linked to the final settlement of a contract on the development of Level 91. CapEx for the period was NOK 74 million, NOK 50.4 million of this was development CapEx mainly related to Level 91 as well as the Fe65 and the increased magnetite production project.

NOK 17.4 million was related to scheduled investments in machines, buildings, et cetera, classified as typical maintenance CapEx, while NOK 6.4 million or NOK 6.5 million was related to the unexpected failure of one of the conveyor belts in the underground mine. Of financial activities, NOK 48 million was payout of dividends for the first quarter and NOK 13 million was payment of principal portion of our lease liabilities. All in all, this gives us a negative change in cash of NOK 162 million for the second quarter.

Let's end the financial review by looking shortly at our financial position. We still consider our financial position to be strong and have a solid financial foundation to navigate volatile markets to further develop our strategic initiatives. After dividend distribution for the second -- for the first quarter of '24, our equity ratio was 58.7%. And by the end of the second quarter, the total cash holding was NOK 90 million. As mentioned in the previous slide, the large reduction in cash is linked to payment of tax and reduction in payables.

Then I think this concludes the financial section, and I will leave the word over to Gunnar for his summary.

[Gunnar Moe, executive]

Thank you, Erlend. We have now given you an overview of our performance in the second quarter. To sum up, the quarter was characterized by high sales and extensive maintenance stop and progress on our strategic projects. Going forward, we are facing potential headwinds from external factors like volatile iron ore prices and uncertainties related to sales in Europe.

The Board of Directors decided to pay out NOK 2.23 in dividend for the second quarter, which means 14 consecutive quarters in a row since we became public. We are optimistic and excited to continue creating value to our shareholders, employees and the local community going forward.

This concludes our presentation. Now on to our Investor Relations, Vegard Nerdal, who will take us through the Q&A session.

[Vegard Nerdal, executive]

Thank you, Erlend and Gunnar. We'll give the audience a minute to queue their questions. For the moment, we don't have any. So -- but I will elaborate and say that we will give an update on our strategic projects and our cost position in November on the Capital Markets Day. And if there is not any more questions, I think you just conclude the session for today and hope to see you all again in November. Thank you.

[Gunnar Moe, executive]

Bye, everyone.