Sibanye slumps amid price hits, but it's confident it can get through the downturn

Shares in platinum group metals (PGM) producer Sibanye-Stillwater fell almost than 5% on Tuesday after it announced it had plunged into a R37.8 billion basic loss in its year ended December.

Sibanye skipped paying a dividend and said it would continue to take other measures to strengthen its balance sheet, already moving to cut almost R7 billion in operational costs. The previous year Sibanye reported a basic profit of R18.4 billion, but in 2023 it was hit by lower PGM and nickel prices that prompted hefty writedowns.

Headline earnings fell about 90% to R1.78 billion to end-December. But Sibanye, valued at about R51.6 billion on the JSE, is confident it is able to carry itself through a sustained depressed commodity market. Sibanye has more than R20 billion in unused credit facilities that can be called up to help fund working capital should the need arise. CEO Neal Froneman added: