Evraz climbs as dividend plan offsets losses
RUSSIAN steel-maker Evraz saw its share price soar over seven per cent in early trading yesterday, after a surprise promise of a dividend and cost cuts offset wider losses in its full-year results.
The FTSE 250-quoted company reported losses of $572m (£342m), a 34.6 per cent increase from 2012, while revenue fell 2.1 per cent to $14.4bn – “2013 was another challenging year for the global steel and coal mining industries, characterised by strong cyclical headwinds, which Evraz was not immune to,” said chief executive Alexander Frolov.
Heavily indebted Evraz is drastically cutting costs, reducing spending by around $400m in 2013 to $902m. It expects to make further cuts this year.
It has pledged a dividend of six cents per share, dependent on its debt to earnings ratio hitting a certain target.
Evraz warned that the political unrest in Ukraine could impact its operations, but said it had not yet.
Shares closed up 3.8 per cent.