COMPANY NEWS & UPDATES
option to lower costs with greater scale and higher-grade ore .
We maintain our expectation for the gold price to fall to USD 1,390 per ounce long term from 2023 , reflecting an expected normalising of investor demand and as the economy improves . Investor demand has picked up the slack from weak jewellery demand but can quickly reverse as in the last gold price downturn in 2013 . According to the World Gold Council , gold jewellery demand during the pandemic hit an 11-year low and gold jewellery sales fell 34 % in 2020 relative to 2019 . The gold price surge to a record high above USD 2,000 per ounce was driven entirely by investors . A material part of this was inflows to gold-backed exchange-traded funds , where global holdings have reached approximately USD 48 billion . Investor demand benefited from gold ' s perception as a hedge against economic uncertainty and inflation . A reduction in ETF holdings could rapidly add to the gold supply and serve as a catalyst for gold prices to revert closer to pre-pandemic levels .
Newcrest declared a USD 0.15 per share fully franked dividend for the half , double last year ' s interim dividend . The company has flagged a desire to return more cash to shareholders , unveiling a new dividend policy targeting a 30 % -60 % earnings payout versus 10 % -30 % previously . The company will also have a minimum USD 0.15 per share annual dividend . We think the policy revision is a good one and reflects the strong state of the balance sheet , with net debt sitting at just USD 330 million at the end of 2020 . Net debt / EBITDA for the half was just 0.1 . The company is well placed to sustain a higher payout while also developing the planned new mines and potentially undertaking smaller scale , opportunistic acquisitions .
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