How Freeport-McMoRan Plans to Turn Itself Around

On a GAAP basis Freeport posted a net loss of $3.8 billion, or $3.58 per share.

Third-quarter realized copper prices averaged $2.38 a pound, compared with $3.12 a year ago. The average realized price for gold fell from $1,220 per ounce to $1,117, and for molybdenum the average realized price fell from $14.71 a year ago to $7.91. Freeport produced 150,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in the third quarter, up from 136,000 in the year ago quarter, and realized revenues of $43.00 per barrel, down from $69.08 in the third quarter of last year.

During the third quarter, the company said it planned to reduce 2016 capex from $5.6 billion in 2015 to $4 billion in 2016, with a cut of $700 million in mining capex and $900 million in oil and gas capital spending. The company is also looking at cutting production in some North and South American copper mines and cutting its mining operating costs.

Earlier in October, Freeport reduced the size of its board and named two new directors selected by activist investor Carl Icahn who owns about 9% of Freeport’s stock.

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The company’s chairman, James R. Moffett, and CEO Richard C. Adkerson said:

During the third quarter, we took a series of aggressive actions to reduce costs and capital expenditures and to strengthen our financial position. These actions, combined with the recent achievement of several important project milestones, position FCX for enhanced free cash flow generation in a weak market environment while maintaining exposure to improved future market conditions for our large resource base. We remain focused on managing our production, costs and capital expenditures under volatile market conditions as we seek to strengthen our balance sheet and build value for shareholders from our high quality portfolio of assets.

Freeport also noted that based on current sales volume and cost estimates and assuming average prices of $2.40 per pound for copper, $1,150 per ounce for gold, $5.50 per pound for molybdenum and $50 per barrel for Brent crude oil for fourth-quarter 2015, operating cash flows are expected to approximate $3.3 billion for the year 2015. Using similar price assumptions, operating cash flows are expected to approximate $6.8 billion for the year 2016.

Net cash costs per pound of copper rose from $1.34 a year ago to $1.52 in the third quarter, based on current sales volumes. The rise was attributed to lower by-product (gold and molybdenum) credits. Freeport expects unit net cash costs “to decline significantly in 2016, principally reflecting higher anticipated gold and copper volumes.” The company said that, based on the gold and molybdenum price assumptions for 2016, unit cash costs net of by-products are expected to average $1.15 per pound of copper.

Shares traded down about 0.8% at $11.86 in premarket trading Thursday, in a 52-week range of $7.76 to $31.18. Prior to this earnings release, Thomson/Reuters had a consensus price target of around $14.47 on the company’s shares.

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