Nickel Asia net earnings more than double in 2011

MANILA, Philippines - Nickel Asia Corp. said yesterday its net earnings more than doubled to P3.54 billion last year mainly due to higher nickel prices on the world market and an increase in its nickel ore sales.

In a financial report submitted to securities regulators, Nickel Asia said revenues grew 52 percent to P12.69 billion as the total volume of nickel ore sold and delivered from its four operating mines reached a record 10.39 million wet metric tons or an increase of 24.6 percent.

Nickel Asia president and chief executive officer Gerard H. Brimo said the country’s largest nickel producer managed to post strong earnings results despite the earthquake and tsunami in Japan which affected its shipments as well as the insurgency attacks at its Taganito mine.

Nickel Asia booked a one-time casualty loss of P239 million resulting from the insurgency attack in October last year. This, however, was offset by an inventory write-up of P573 million resulting from the change in the volume estimates of the long-term stockpiles at its Rio Tuba mine and a P434 million dividend from Coral Bay Nickel Corp.

Given robust earnings results, Nickel Asia approved a cash dividend declaration of 80 centavos per share to shareholders of record as of April 16, payable on May 11.

Aside from this, the company announced a 50 percent stock dividend. The record date has yet to be determined by the Securities and Exchange Commission following the approval of the increase in the firm’s authorized capital.

Nickel Asia also disclosed that commercial operations of the Taganito plant, originally targeted for August 2013, would be delayed for several months. Damages incurred are part of the equity in net losses of its associate, which amounted to P196 million.

Drilling for gold and copper at its Manmanok property located in Apayao province, will commence within the first half of the year. The site is one of four gold-copper exploration properties acquired by Nickel Asia from Anglo-American Exploration Philippines in 2010.