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To: Box-By-The-Riviera™ who wrote (275746)	1/30/2004 3:41:28 PM
From: patron_anejo_por_favor	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 436258

Oops, yeah, I was thinking about RANGY. My bad. GFI has diversified, especially to Australia in the last couple of years, they're still primarily SA but it's less of a pure play than HMY or DROOY. In any event, the HUI is not particularly SA over-weighted, which was my point. EDIT: Not to dwell on it, but I know a lot of folks here own or are interested in GFI. This is from their latest earnings release: biz.yahoo.com JOHANNESBURG, Jan 29 (Reuters) - South Africa's Gold Fields Ltd (GFIJ.J), the world's fourth-biggest gold miner, posted softer-than-expected second-quarter earnings on Thursday, but an uptick in output and buoyant overseas profits pleased investors. ADVERTISEMENT Gold Fields, in the midst of restructuring its South African operations and diversifying outside the country, managed to lift gold output by 7,000 ounces to 1.045 million ounces and trim overall costs despite a damaging mine fire. "The South African operations were under pressure, but that was expected, the real surprise was the strength of the international operations," said Patrice Rassou, who manages a gold fund at Old Mutual Asset Managers. Even though overall operating profit fell by 4.4 percent to 545 million rand ($77.38 million) for the three months to the end of December compared to the previous quarter, the figure from its mines in Australia and Ghana jumped 15 percent. Shares in Gold Fields fell 0.2 percent to 94.40 rand by 1320 GMT, slightly outperforming a 0.7 percent fall in the gold mining index (^JGLDX - News). The stock shed a fifth of its value last year, but has been little changed so far in January. The company, which has suffered as the strong rand squeezed its dollar-based revenue, announced a rationalisation programme in domestic operations in October, but cautioned that the benefits of the shake-up would take time to boost profits. Gold Fields, also seeking to cut exposure to currency fluctuations at home, said it aims to add 1.5 million ounces of output within five years in areas where costs are denominated in dollars, such as elsewhere in Africa and South America. "As a company we are probably too exposed to commodity-currency countries, South Africa and Australia," Chief Executive Ian Cockerill told a results news conference. GOLD FIELDS OVER HARMONY Even though Gold Fields reported a 20 percent drop in underlying earnings per share, analysts and fund managers said the results were superior to rival Harmony Gold (HARJ.J), the fifth-biggest gold producer, which reported on Tuesday. Gold Fields' earnings per share excluding contributions from financial instruments and debt for the second quarter fell to 23 cents from 29 cents the previous quarter. This was at the low end of a range of forecasts by eight analysts surveyed by Reuters of 20 cents to 37 cents, with an average at 29.4 cents. "What is important is that they have beaten the socks off their rival Harmony, and that is what people will be watching, not just the numbers," said an analyst who declined to be named. "We are in an environment where everyone is expecting the quarterlies to be bad. It is a relative game." Harmony's operating profit was much worse, diving 19 percent, and it failed to manage costs as well as Gold Fields. Gold Fields had a margin on earnings before interest, tax depreciation and amortisation ( EBITDA) of 21 percent versus Harmony's 12 percent, the analyst added. Old Mutual's Rassou said he might add to his current holding in Gold Fields, which makes up 20 percent of his 600 million rand fund and which he preferred over Harmony, which accounted for five percent. A major hiccup was a worse-than-expected impact of two fires at South African mine Driefontein, which pushed down output there by three percent and increased costs by eight percent. "They had one problem: Driefontein. If they could fix Driefontein their performance would have been significantly better," said analyst Leon Esterhuizen at Investec Securities. Gold Fields, echoing Harmony, held out the prospect of better results in the current quarter following a recent weakening of the rand that has pushed up the gold price in local currency terms.