Whitehaven Coal Annual Profit Slips 29%, Unveils Share Buyback
Whitehaven Coal's annual profit fell 29% to A$227 million, missing estimates, as coal prices weakened. Shares dropped over 4% despite a new buyback plan.
Whitehaven Coal, Australia's largest independent coal miner, reported a 29% drop in annual underlying profit, missing market expectations, as lower realised coal prices weighed on earnings. The company's shares fell more than 4% in response, even as it announced a new share buyback programme.
For the year ended June 30, underlying net profit after tax came in at A$227 million, down from A$319 million a year earlier. This was below the Visible Alpha consensus estimate of A$247.6 million. Revenue declined 7% to A$5.4 billion.
The average realised coal price fell 6% to A$202 per metric ton, reflecting cyclical weakness in the market and the impact of a stronger Australian dollar.
Despite the profit decline, the company maintained its final dividend at 6 Australian cents per share, bringing the full-year payout to 10 cents per share. Whitehaven also said it plans to spend approximately A$47 million over the next six months on a share buyback programme.
On the cost front, the company's unit cost of coal dropped to A$132 per ton from A$139, while capital expenditure fell to A$349 million from A$390 million. For fiscal 2027, Whitehaven guided capital expenditure in the range of A$390 million to A$490 million.
"We continued to focus on the controllables — productivity, cost discipline, margin optimisation and cash generation — with both unit cost of coal and capital expenditure at the low end of FY26 guidance," said CEO and Managing Director Paul Flynn.
The company forecast managed run-of-mine coal production between 38 million tons and 41 million tons for fiscal 2027, compared with 40.3 million tons produced in the previous year.
Analysts noted that the guidance for volumes was slightly soft, though unit costs were in line and capital expenditure was lower. "FY27 guidance provided with volumes a touch soft, unit cost in line but capex lower, which may see consensus earnings and cash flow downgrades," said Glyn Lawcock, head of metals and mining research at Barrenjoey.