Boliden Reports Strong Q4 Earnings, Raises 2025 Capex Forecast Despite Dividend Cut

Boliden announced a larger-than-expected rise in fourth-quarter core earnings on Thursday and increased its capital expenditure forecast for 2025, leading to a 3.6% rise in its share price. However, the Swedish miner also scrapped its dividend for last year to offset costs related to recent acquisitions.

The company's operating profit, excluding the revaluation of its process inventory, surged to 3.81 billion crowns ($348.8 million) from 2.02 billion crowns a year earlier, surpassing the company-provided consensus estimate of 3.59 billion crowns. Boliden attributed the strong results to acquisitions and robust production performance.

“In Harjavalta, both copper and nickel production are strong, and zinc production in Kokkola is also very reliable,” said Boliden CEO Mikael Staffas in the quarterly report.

Despite the positive earnings, Boliden cancelled its ordinary dividend for 2024 to mitigate the impact of a planned new share issue associated with the acquisitions of the Neves-Corvo and Zinkgruvan mines from Lundin Mining. Analysts had previously flagged the acquisitions as a potential risk to dividend payouts but remained optimistic about some level of distribution.

Boliden increased its capital expenditure forecast for 2025 to 14 billion crowns from a previous estimate of 13.5 billion crowns, citing roll-over from 2024 projects. The company also announced planned maintenance shutdowns at its smelters in 2025, which are expected to reduce operating profit by 500 million crowns.

In the fourth quarter, Boliden resumed production at the Tara mine in Ireland, which had been on care and maintenance since July 2023 due to financial and operational challenges. Additionally, the company reported that the expansion project at the Odda zinc smelter in Norway is nearing completion after facing delays last year.