South Africa’s Sasol profit falls up to 11% on R16bn charge

South African Petrochemicals group Sasol said full-year profit probably fell as it takes a 16 billion-rand ($1.2 billion) depreciation charge and accounts for expenses on share-based payments, Reuters reported.

Sasol said core headline earnings per share (HEPS) for the year ended June. 30, 2018 are expected to decrease by 46 cents to 4.30 rand ($0.3190) from 38.47 rand in the same period the previous year.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) are expected to increase by 6 percent to 16 percent.

“The difference between core HEPS and EBITDA in the current year is largely due to depreciation of approximately 16 billion rand and employee share-based payment expenses of 1.5 billion rand due to the marked improvement of the Sasol share price at the end of the financial year,” the firm said in a statement.