Russian aluminium giant Rusal beat forecasts with a 30% jump in third-quarter core earnings yesterday, helped by higher aluminium prices and rising sales of value added products.
It is the first results from Hong-Kong listed Rusal since its controlling shareholder — Russia’s En+ Group — raised $1.5bn from a share sale in London and Moscow and announced Glencore’s plan to swap its 8.75% stake in Rusal for shares in En+.
Rusal’s third-quarter earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose to $549mn from $421mn in the third quarter of 2016.
Analysts had expected core earnings of $515mn. “In the third quarter, Rusal set another record in sales of value added products with the latter reaching 50% in total sales for the first time,” chief executive Vladislav Soloviev said in a statement.
Rusal, the world’s second largest aluminium producer after China’s Hongqiao, aims to increase this to 60% by 2021, he added.
Total third-quarter revenue rose 19.4% to $2.5bn.
Rusal shares were down 0.7% in Hong Kong, underperforming a 0.4% rise in the benchmark index.
Its stock has been under pressure since October 11, when its other shareholders — Russian businessmen Mikhail Prokhorov and Viktor Vekselberg — sold a 3% stake in the company, increasing its free float. The deals by Rusal’s shareholders come amid a 24% increase in London aluminium prices so far this year which have been supported by a cut in China’s production over winter that has spawned a market deficit.