TORONTO — The target of competing takeover offers, Falconbridge Ltd. says its second-quarter profit soared to $728-million (U.S.) from $202-million as the nickel miner benefited from high metal prices that almost doubled sales revenue.
That amounted to earnings per diluted share of $1.91 for the Toronto-based company, which reports in U.S. dollars, up from 61 cents a share for the same period last year.
Analysts, on average, had been looking for earnings of $1.93 a share before one-time items, according to Thomson Financial.
Sales almost doubled to $3.9-billion, from $2-billion, due to higher realized metal prices, higher copper and zinc sales volumes and increased revenue contribution from by-product molybdenum.
”This strong performance continues to reflect both the ability of our operations to capitalize on high metals prices and to generate very substantial levels of cash,” stated CEO Derek Pannel.
”In the first half of the year, income from operating assets almost reached $2-billion, demonstrating Falconbridge's true earnings potential.”
The company is the target of a heated takeover battle between onetime rival Inco Ltd. and Swiss miner Xstrata PLC.
It has so far stood behind the friendly Inco bid, which is backed by U.S. copper firm Phelps Dodge Corp., but is currently reviewing a sweetened bid by Xstrata.
Falconbridge said Monday it will ”provide shareholders with a recommendation shortly.”
