RNS out...11 Feb 2021 08:34
The AGM RNS is out this morning, but not showing on this site. (You can find it at investegate.co.uk).
Here is the Chairman's Letter. It confirms that production continues to be on target, confirms both very high PGM prices and the recent improvement in metallurgical chrome prices, and objects to the possible chrome tax (which seems to have disappeared from the news).
"Dear Stakeholder
I welcome you to this, our 7th Annual General Meeting as a listed entity on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and our 5th as a listed company on the London Stock Exchange.
It is still hard to believe what a year we have had since our last Annual General Meeting, with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic firmly entrenched across all sectors of society and the economy. Our condolences go to those who have lost their lives, including two of our colleagues, but we place great hope in the advances science has made in finding a vaccine for this pandemic and we have seen the rollout begin in earnest in a number of countries.
We are extremely proud as a company to have weathered the COVID-19 storm as well as we have, and our exceptional safety record, details of which we spoke about in our integrated report posted just before Christmas.
Coupled with the safety performance, was our standout conduct in both mining and processing, where the tough decisions we took over a year ago are bearing fruit, not only in the past financial year, but also in the first quarter of this new financial year, details of which we reported on in early January, placing us on track to meet our production guidance for the year. Nothing since then has given rise to us changing our confidence.
Demand for our commodities remains extremely robust and with industry leading exposure to the PGM basket price, we remain confident that the operational performance will translate into healthy financial results, as was already evidenced at last year's results. Pleasing too, is the strong increase in prices for metallurgical chrome, whose price was lagging those of other steel commodities.
Disappointingly, the South African government has not made any further public comments on the proposed export tax for chrome. Tharisa remains a key player in the industry body known as Chrome SA, where, together with some of the other major players in the chrome market, we remain steadfast in our view that the proposed tax benefits are far outweighed by the risk, as demonstrated by independent third party analysis, possibly breaching global trade regulations in the process. This proposed tax will not provide lasting or coherent support to the ferrochrome industry and the only sustainable and viable aid to this downstream industry is subsidised electricity pricing, and as such, we will defend our industry position.
Tharisa is on a firm, strong footing and we would like to thank you, the stakeholders, once again for your support and look forward to updating you throughout the year.
LC Pouroulis, Exe
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