Exxaro report selector 2019

Report selector

Exxaro Resources Limited
Integrated report 2019

Currently viewing: Positioning the business for growth / Performance against strategy

Performance against strategy

In 2019, our strategic objectives continued to guide our actions within a constrained environment, which called for tough decisions and firm commitment to our focus on business resilience: our ability to withstand any economic and commodity market downturn

Strategic objectives Related material matters Performance in 2019 Key KPI and performance Looking ahead

Ensuring the sustainability of our business

  • Financial resilience
  • Key customer dependency
  • Cost competitiveness of product
  • Product substitution
  • Capital project execution
  • Workforce culture, diversity and capability/innovation
  • Transparency, ethics and integrity
  • Safety and health
  • Legal and regulatory excellence
  • Social unrest
  • Supporting job and business creation
  • Cybersecurity
  • Climate change
  • Responsible environmental stewardship
  • Country risk (political)
  • Price and currency volatility
  • Short-term investor/shareholder focus
  • Infrastructure access and capacity

Exxaro has been responsive to opportunities within its ESG landscape:

We have implemented a safety campaign, Khetha Ukuphepha, to arrest the declining trend in our safety performance.

In 2019, we maintained our LTIFR of 0.12, which remains above our target of 0.11. We are beginning to see improvements where the performance of the first two months of this year is significantly better than the same period in the previous year.

We have maintained best-in-class performance in terms of our CDP and ESG ratings. This is a pleasing objective recognition on which we are building in terms of our climate response strategy. The opportunity for self-generation is being evaluated, which will present additional opportunities for improvement in our emission-reduction efforts.

Target: Top quartile ESG

FTSE Russell ESG Index – Exxaro’s
historical performance

Exxaro is focusing on improving its ESG performance as a consequence of improved stewardship and management of our sustainability capitals.

We anticipate that our safety performance will improve as a result of our safety awareness campaign, Khetha Ukuphepha

Exxaro has committed to becoming Scope 1 and Scope 2 carbon-neutral by 2050.

We are working to prepare for and mitigate climate change effects in the coal business
(+ see climate change)


Portfolio optimisation

  • Financial resilience
  • Cost competitiveness of product
  • Product substitution
  • Capital project execution
  • Supporting job and business creation
  • Climate change
  • Responsible environmental stewardship
  • Country risk (political)
  • Price and currency volatility
  • Short-term investor/shareholder focus
  • Infrastructure access and capacity

We completed the transfer of Arnot mine to Arnot OpCo, an operation owned and operated by former employees with a broad-based benefit scheme for the surrounding communities. All conditions precedent have been fulfilled – we continue to evaluate the remaining coal assets for resilience in the evolving operating environment.

We are pleased with our progress in the corporate portfolio optimisation – we are nearing the conclusion of an agreement for the sale of our interest in Black Mountain Mining; and the remaining interest in Tronox will be sold at a suitable market opportunity.

Portfolio optimisation remains a strategic objective to, firstly, ensure a simplified business structure that will reduce the holding discount in our valuation; and secondly, in relation to the coal business, remain with a portfolio of coal assets that will withstand the market price volatility and remain with high quality reserves which provide flexibility with changing market requirements for coal products.

We have taken a more aggressive path in our optimisation of the investment portfolio in order to focus more effectively on building a sustainable business. Therefore we are reviewing all further investments in our Business of Tomorrow (BoT) venture. Exxaro's deepest roots and expertise lie in energy and because energy security is critical to food and water security, we have determined that we can most powerfully move the needle by sharpening our focus on energy and on gaining nearer-term traction in that area. Consequently, we are strengthening our commitment to energy. In keeping with that aim, we have purchased the remaining 50% interest in Cennergi from Tata Power. This JV vehicle has been in Exxaro's portfolio since 2012 and represented our first foray into renewable wind energy as well as our early recognition of the need to reduce the carbon intensity of Exxaro's total portfolio.


Operational excellence

  • Cost competitiveness of product
  • Product substitution
  • Capital project execution
  • Workforce culture, diversity and capability/innovation
  • Safety and health
  • Legal and regulatory excellence
  • Cybersecurity
  • Climate change
  • Responsible environmental stewardship
  • Price and currency volatility
  • Short-term investor/shareholder focus
  • Infrastructure access and capacity

Our operational excellence drive culminates in the margin above our operating costs at the hands of the customer. We therefore continued to seek opportunities to ensure cost competitive production and improved efficiency for higher volumes.

Our digitalisation strategy continues to evolve. Improvements are still incremental. However, we anticipate significant improvements over the next three years in unit cost and volume metrics.

Target: To limit increase to be no higher than mining inflation (R/tonne)

Volumes: TTH

Cost per tonne#

Our coal operations will be best-in-class and cost-competitive through our operational excellence drive to continue to meet customer expectations in terms of volumes, quality and price.

We are planning for a CPI +2% (mining inflation) increase in unit costs, acknowledging inflation costs, but with improving volume efficiencies. Cash cost performance and free cash flow generation will be material measures of operational success.

Capital allocation priorities

  • Financial resilience
  • Key customer dependency
  • Cost competitiveness of product
  • Product substitution
  • Capital project execution
  • Workforce culture, diversity and capability/innovation
  • Supporting job and business creation
  • Climate change
  • Responsible environmental stewardship
  • Country risk (political)
  • Price and currency volatility
  • Short-term investor/shareholder focus
  • Infrastructure access and capacity

Exxaro's improved capital allocation programme continued to deliver on commitments related to capital expenditure for its production growth through project delivery and return of cash to shareholders.

In relation to capex and project delivery, other than GG6, all projects are on schedule and on budget.

During March 2019, Tronox Limited redomiciled from Australia to the UK. Each Tronox Limited shareholder received one share in the newly incorporated English company, Tronox Holdings plc, in exchange for each share held in the Australian-incorporated Tronox Limited. On 9 May 2019, Tronox Holdings plc repurchased 14 000 000 shares from Exxaro. Exxaro returned 65% of the cash received to shareholders as a special dividend. We are committed to concluding the disposal of the remaining interest at an opportune moment and once again the majority of those proceeds will be distributed to shareholders.

Target: ROCE >20%

Dividend policy

(1) Pass through of SIOC dividend

(2) 2.5 - 3.5 coal earnings

ROCE

Return and growth are the primary expectations by shareholders from the performance of the business.

The combination of our free cash flow generation and cash obtained from disposals has imposed a greater focus on our capital allocation and strategic outlook.

Our approach to building another core business in energy will be well considered in terms of an understanding of our capabilities and those required for success in this new area. We have learned valuable lessons from our past capital-allocation endeavours.

As we embark on a transition strategy, a key consideration will be balancing medium- term growth.


Progress against our coal-specific strategy

Progress in achieving specific objectives that impacted our results include:

Improved discard handling

Commissioning of the new Belfast mine

Development of our "early value" strategy

Strategic objectives

Pillar     Objective     Business risks addressed

Portfolio excellence

 

Develop portfolio investment and divestment scenarios

Execute streamlined investment and divestment processes

 

Dependency on Eskom as key customer

Price and currency volatility

Executing Business of Tomorrow strategy

Marketing excellence

 

Market-to-resource optimisation

Extend positioning in value chain

 

Dependency on Eskom as key customer

Price and currency volatility

Cost-competitiveness of products

Infrastructure access and capacity (Transnet Freight Rail and Richards Bay Coal Terminal)

Innovation excellence

 

Set base: Ensure ICT infrastructure

Digitalise and link all steps of value chain

Enable digitalisation: approach, team and structure/processes

 

Price and currency volatility

Cost competitiveness of products

Competition and product substitution

Operational excellence

 

Drive top five priorities

Startup Way

Implement LEAN51 findings across business units

 

Price and currency volatility

Cost competitiveness of products

Capital management excellence

 

Align project portfolio with strategy

Reduce capital cycle lead time

Implement projects with LEAN5 construction

Measure and forecast in real-time

Communicate effectively to markets

 

Capital project execution

People and organisation excellence

 

Align workforce planning with strategy

Recruit talent and train new capabilities

Address social impact of technology

Change management for Startup Way culture

Streamline and automate people-centred processes (cross-functional initiative driven by human resources and sustainability)

 

Retention strategy: people

Talent retention: people

Compliance and adherence to B-BBEE and Mining Charter III targets

Employee value proposition

Reskilling and upskilling employees for new world of work

Safety and sustainability excellence

 

Maintain licence to operate

Leverage latest technology in safety, health, environment and community management

Effective community engagement

 

Maintain social licence to operate

Community unrest

1 A range of initiatives to extract more from what we have and maximise opportunities.

Five enabling topics identified to accelerate business optimisation across coal business

 
Bias for
action
  Performance management Ownership for operational excellence by line Incentive
system
Spans of
control
Bias for action to translate procedures and standard operating procedure into action, adhere to plans and implement agreed actions   System requires close frontline performance tracking and visualisation to engage people on the shop floor Operating units are accountable for driving operational excellence Incentive system should award individual performance Large number of low and high spans of control
           
 
 
Case study: Coal's future

Coal is an important source of electricity, with more than a third of the world's power generated by coal. "That doesn't mean we, as a coal business, should sit back and relax," said Mxolisi Mgojo, Exxaro's CEO, during a panel discussion at the 2019 Mining Indaba. "The world is changing, and it is changing fast, and this requires us to adapt constantly. We must gear ourselves to be disruptors if we don't want to be disrupted. Dealing with some of these changes, which range from coal divestment to the surge in technology, requires us to diversify from an operational and even a client perspective to stay resilient. The time of being able to comfortably rely on one resource, one core business activity, and one key offtaker is long gone."

Exxaro is therefore looking ahead, confirmed Mxolisi. "We have been doing so for quite some time and we will continue to do so."