Peter Hambro posts 1H 2009 Net Profit of $75 million, to become Petropavlovsk

Peter Hambro Mining, the British listed gold miner with operations focused on Russia, has posted a 1H 2009 Net profit of $75 million under IAS34.

The bottom line is up 400% from the $15 million Net Profit posted for 1H 2008 with underlying EBITDA rising 85% to $111 million, on the back of a 47% jump in group revenues to $214 million.

The figures included a one off $23 million gain from the repurchase of Gold Exchangeable Bonds, with attributable production rising 54% to 222,600 ounces. Peter Hambro also benefited from the Rouble devaluation with most of its costs denominated in the Russian currency, which helped it to a 23% reduction in costs per ounce.

Chairman Peter Hambro lauded the figures stating they reflected increased production along with a focus on reducing costs per unit, which makes the Peter Hambro one of the worlds lower cost gold producers.

“We have continued with our policy of focusing on profitable production with the Group’s EBITDA margin rising to over 50% for the first half of 2009 versus 41% the previous half year despite only a 2% rise in the half-on-half gold price and higher levels of Russian inflation albeit assisted by the Rouble depreciation. Moreover, the rapid and successful ramp up of our projects has allowed for a decrease of the Group’s overhead costs on a unit of production basis thus maintaining our costs at the low end of the worldwide industry scale. This trend is likely to continue in future as the Group’s steep growth contributes more and more profitable ounces to the overall production.”

Peter Hambro also announced that the company is planning to change its name from Peter Hambro to Petropavlovsk to reflect the changed nature of a company which Peter Hambro claimed was at its strongest since inception.

“In fifteen years, the nature of our business has changed almost beyond recognition from a gold mining junior to a major multi-mine, multicommodity business and today’s results bear witness to the benefits of these developments. As a result, the Board has decided that the existing company name no longer reflects the true nature of the business and we have today recommended that, subject to shareholder approval, the name of the Company be changed to Petropavlovsk PLC. Recognising that almost all our assets and employees are in Russia, we have chosen Petropavlovsk because it is a Russian name with a powerful historical significance. From the Petropavlovsk fort in the west in St. Petersburg to the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy in the east, Petropavlovsk is a name known across Russia. At the same time its derivation from the names Peter and Paul continues to link the business name to Pavel and I as the Group’s founders and we both look forward to contributing to the continuing success of the Group under its new identity.”