Australia's Whitehaven Coal posts 29% drop in annual profit, shares fall (updated)

Whitehaven Coal

19/08/2026 24:11

Full-year underlying NPAT drops 29%, misses VA estimate
Co keeps final dividend at 6 Australian cents per share
Plans to buy back shares worth A$47 million over six months
Rewrites paragraph 1, adds details and analyst comment
Aug 19 (Reuters) - Australia's Whitehaven Coal WHC.AX reported a bigger-than-expected 29% drop in annual profit on Wednesday, hurt by lower realised coal prices, sending its shares more than 4% lower even as the miner unveiled a share buyback programme.
The average achieved coal price fell 6% to A$202 per metric ton for the year ended June 30, reflecting cyclical weakness and the impact of a stronger Australian dollar. 
Underlying net profit after tax came in at A$227 million  ($160.69 million), lower than A$319 million a year earlier and the Visible Alpha estimate of A$247.6 million. Revenue fell 7% to A$5.4 billion.
Shares of the country's largest independent coal miner fell as much as 4.6% to A$7.40, posting their biggest intraday percentage drop since July 28. 
Whitehaven Coal announced a final dividend of 6 Australian cents per share, unchanged from a year earlier, bringing the full-year dividend to 10 cents per share. It said it intended to spend about A$47 million over six months under its share buyback programme.
Its unit cost of coal fell to A$132 per ton from A$139, while capital expenditure dropped to A$349 million from A$390 million. For fiscal 2027, Whitehaven estimated capital expenditure of A$390 million to A$490 million, up from A$349 million incurred in fiscal 2026.
"We continued to focus on the controllables — productivity, cost discipline, margin optimisation and cash generation — with both unit cost of coal and capital expenditure at the low end of FY26 guidance," said CEO and Managing Director Paul Flynn.
It forecast managed run-of-mine coal production between 38 million tons and 41 million tons for 2027, compared with 40.3 million produced in 2026.
"FY27 guidance provided with volumes a touch soft, unit cost in line but capex lower, which may see consensus earnings and cash flow downgrades," Glyn Lawcock, head of metals and mining research at Barrenjoey, said in a note.    

($1 = 1.4126 Australian dollars)

 (Reporting by Sherin Sunny and Jasmeen Ara Shaikh in Bengaluru; Editing by Leroy Leo and Subhranshu Sahu)
 ((JasmeenAraIslam.Shaikh@thomsonreuters.com;))