Brazilian miner Vale SA on Thursday reported its fourth-quarter net profit nearly doubled to $5.4 billion, beating analysts forecasts of $4.70 billion, helped by accounting gains.
The good performance was mainly due to the impact on the miner's net equity of a reclassification of cumulative foreign exchange gains, the company said in its earnings report.
The financial gains were partially offset by higher expenses related to the Brumadinho dam disaster, like an additional provision of $1.7 billion related to the decharacterization of upstream dams.
Vale also reported adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) of $6.96 billion, down 23.5% from the same quarter of 2020 and also below the 7.10 billion reported in the previous quarter.
The decrease in its EBITDA reflects a lower realization price for iron ore, its main product, the company said. In the quarter, Vale realized $106.8 per tonne of iron ore fines, down from the $126.7 reported in the third quarter.
In a separate filing also on Thursday, Vale announced the distribution of dividends to shareholders of 3.7018 reais per share, which would be equivalent to $3.5 billion, to be paid on March 16.