South African petrochemicals group Sasol on Tuesday warned of a massive annual loss for the financial year ended on June 30. This comes after the company’s ZAR112 billion ($6.3 billion) writedowns on US chemical assets which surpasses its market capitalization of ZAR94.9 billion ($5.4 billion).
The company’s base chemicals segment will take a ZAR71.3 billion ($4.1 billion) impairment, with an additional ZAR27.7 billion ($1.6 billion) charge for performance chemicals, mostly in the US. Its energy business will write off ZAR12.5 billion across the portfolio. Sasol expects the loss per share to range from ZAR146.75 to ZAR148.75 ($8.3 to $8.5), compared to earnings per share of ZAR6.97 in the previous financial year.
