Despite Sasol's expected decline in headline earnings, its numbers were in line with market forecasts and the underlying performance of the business was good, analysts said. On Friday the group said it expected a drop in its core headline earnings per share of between 1% and 11% or 46c to R4.30 per share in its financial year to end-June 2018. In the last financial year earnings per share were R38.47. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation were expected to be up by between 6% and 16%, it said. The petrochemicals company said its negative guidance was because of several unplanned Eskom electricity supply interruptions and two internal outtages at its Secunda Synfuels operation, which led to lower production volumes. However, the group managed to deliver a strong operational performance in the second half of the year through "focused interventions and management actions", it said. Sasol said the strong rand/dollar exchange rate resulted in a much lower operating ...
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