Inco earns 39 cents per share in Q4
Inco Ltd N
Shares issued 181,702,011 Feb 5 close $25.76
Tue 6 Feb 2001 News Release
Mr. Mike Sopco reports
Inco has provided its audited results for the year 2000. The company had a
good finish to the year with fourth quarter net earnings of $78-million, or
39 cents a common share (38 cents a share on a fully diluted basis),
compared with $40-million, or 18 cents a share, for the corresponding
period of 1999. Results for 2000 were net earnings of $400-million, or
$2.06 a share ($1.97 a share on a fully diluted basis), compared with
$12-million, or a loss of eight cents a share after preferred dividends,
for 1999. Results for 2000 included an unusual deferred tax benefit of
$38-million, or 21 cents a share, recorded in the second quarter. The tax
benefit was due principally to the revaluation of deferred income tax
liabilities for the reduction in future tax rates in the province of
Ontario.
"The year 2000 has to go down as one of the best in company history," said
Inco chairman and chief executive officer, Mike Sopko. "It was the year all
of our hard work paid off with the best financial performance in a decade.
Clearly, our strategic focus on low cost, profitable growth, aggressive
cost-cutting and the expansion of our value-added specialty nickel products
is working," he noted.
"Even though we still have the challenges of a slowing economy and
continuing high energy costs ahead of us in 2001, we will not lose our
focus on profitability and growth, both in our existing operations and in
our development properties," he added.
Highlights
In its most profitable year since 1990, Inco:
recorded net sales of $2.9-billion, the second highest ever;
produced 447 million pounds of nickel, up 14 per cent over 1999;
generated positive cash flow from operations of $842-million, up sevenfold
from $128-million in 1999, and the third highest ever; and
strengthened its financial position, reducing total debt by $314-million
over 1999 and improving its debt to capitalization, net of cash, to 15 per
cent at year-end from a peak of 43 per cent in 1993. |
