By Aimee Look

Sasol said it expects a drop in earnings for the first half of fiscal 2026 mainly due to prices for Brent crude and chemicals.

The South African chemicals-and-energy group said its results for the six months ended Dec. 31 were hit by a 17% decline in the average price of South African rands per barrel of Brent crude oil, and a 3% fall in the dollar-per-ton chemicals basket price.

It also said that it faced 7.8 billion rand ($485.2 million) in impairments before taxes.

First-half adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization are expected to come in between 19 billion rand and 23 billion rand, the company said. This would represent a 4% to 21% drop compared to the prior-year period--when the metric was 24 billion rand.

Sasol's decrease in earnings was in part offset by an over 100% rise in refining margin and a 3% rise in sales volumes, bolstered by an enhancement in operational performance, the company said.

The group said it anticipates free cash flow generation to improve compared with the prior period because of lower capital expenditure, despite the drop in earnings.

Write to Aimee Look at aimee.look@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 05, 2026 02:12 ET (07:12 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.