Sasol Sees 1st Half FY18 Headline EPS Up by 12% to 17%

Energy and chemicals company Sasol Ltd. (SOL.JO) said Tuesday that headline earnings per share for the first half of fiscal 2018 is expected to increase by between 12% and 17%.

The South Africa-based company said that for the six months ended Dec. 31, headline EPS is expected to be from 1.81 South African rand ($0.15) to ZAR2.57 per share higher than the year-earlier period, when headline EPS were ZAR15.12. The metric is the company's preferred profit measure, and strips out certain exceptional and one-off items.

Sasol said it expects to deliver a largely strong set of results, underpinned by a satisfactory operational performance across most of the company, as well as higher crude oil and product prices, and increased demand for its specialty chemical products.

However results were constrained by poor economic conditions in South Africa, which impacted demand, by a less-than-satisfactory performance at the company's Natref refinery operations, where production volumes fall by 21%, and by currency pressures, Sasol said.

Sasol said that it expects to benefit from recent tax reform changes in the U.S., which U.S. President Donald Trump signed into law in December.

The company said it will publish its interim results on Feb. 26.

Write to Oliver Griffin at oliver.griffin@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 23, 2018 02:23 ET (07:23 GMT)