Loading ...LONDON – The most impressive advance in the stock market this year is a little-known Peruvian miner that rode the comeback in silver.
Hochschild Mining, which operates three mines in Peru and one in Argentina, has soared 432% in 2016, beating every other company in the Bloomberg World Index of 5 125 stocks.
Higher silver prices, new production from its flagship Inmaculada mine in Peru and the weakening Argentine peso have made the stock a favourite for investors. Hochschild has cut back on debt and is expected to report its first profit after three years of losses.
Now the company’s strategy is focusing on finding new reserves of silver and gold near current plants and using more of its processing capacity, according to Ignacio Bustamante, CEO of Hochschild. He plans to avoid buying any new assets.
“There’s going to be a lot of pressure from investors not to do M&A,” Bustamante said. “There’s been a lot of value destruction in acquisitions.”