Goldcorp CEO accepts low share price is surprising

"Everyone is shell-shocked" by Canadian miner Goldcorp's (NYSE: GG) lower share price, company president and CEO Ian Telfer told a conference call on Monday. Goldcorp dipped to US$12.15 per share on the NYSE at the close of trading Monday, the same day the company published its first quarter 2005 results, which showed net earnings of US$29.5mn. This is the company's lowest share price since September 13, 2004, when it stood at US$12.10. Responding to a comment by a private investor who described shareholders as being "shell-shocked" by the share price, Telfer agreed but added Goldcorp's share price has performed better than all other gold companies. "The only people more shell-shocked than you are the people who own shares [in other gold companies] because in the last chart I saw, the best performing gold stock since last December has been Goldcorp," he said. "Although we're down a lot, others were down worse." Telfer also apologized to anyone who might have interpreted previous comments of his as meaning the company would implement a share buy-back scheme in the near future. The company does not intend to introduce such a plan until it reaches production of 2Moz a year, he said. "I apologize if I gave the impression that I was looking at a share buy-back in the near term but I'm not," he said. "Because we're still on our way to the 2Moz mark, we're still looking at acquisitions that, because of the size we need to acquire, are quite expensive." However, once Goldcorp reaches a 2Moz a year level it will look at using its extra cash to fund a buy-back rather than spending the money on dividends or on growing the company further, Telfer said.