Freeport defends Phelps takeover after 13 Billion US dollars writedown

摘要

Impairment and goodwill charges primarily related to Frecport-McMoRan Copper & Gold's (FCX-N) acquisition of Pheips Dodge in March 2007 have come back to haunt it with a 13.9-billion US dollars net loss in the fourth quarter of 2008. After-tax charges due to reduced value of assets came in at 13.1 billion US dollars. In a conference call with analysts, Freeport president and CEO Richard Adkerson emphatically defended the deal, argu-ing that in the long run, the 26-billion US dollars takeover puts Freeport in a stronger position.