Gold Fields 1st Half Earnings to Fall on Exchange Rates

Gold Fields Ltd. (GFI.JO) expects a drop of between 43% and 57% in half-year earnings per share as a result of adverse currency effects and higher amortization.

The gold producer, with operating mines in Australia, Ghana, Peru and South Africa, said earnings per share for the six months ended June 30 are expected to be $0.06 to $0.08 lower than the $0.14 per share a year earlier.

Normalized earnings for the period will fall 15% to 31% from the $0.13 per share reported a year earlier.

Gold Fields said the declines are mainly due to the impact of exchange rates when converting local currency costs to dollars and an increase in amortization.

Attributable gold equivalent production for the second quarter of 2017 is expected to be 550,000 ounces compared with 497,000 ounces during the first quarter.

Write to Razak Musah Baba at razak.baba@wsj.com; Twitter: @Raztweet

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 27, 2017 03:44 ET (07:44 GMT)