LONDON, Aug 20 (Reuters) – Glencore Xstrata took a $7.7 billion hit on Xstrata’s mining assets on Tuesday, drastically reducing the value of early-stage projects after falling prices dragged down first-half profit.
The mining industry has been pummelled by billions of dollars in writedowns since the start of the year, with cooling prices and demand prospects denting the value of mining projects.
Glencore had been expected to follow suit once it completed the acquisition of Xstrata, and in its first post-takeover results on Tuesday it announced the figure alongside a 9 percent drop in core profit.
In absorbing the impact of a drop in commodity prices during the time it took to close the marathon takeover, Glencore wiped out all the goodwill value it had provisionally allocated to Xstrata’s mines at the time of the merger.
“We just had to value the business with a blank sheet of paper,” Chief Financial Officer Steven Kalmin said.