Aug 24 (Reuters) – Australia’s top fuel retailer Ampol posted a nearly five-fold rise in interim profit to a record high on Monday, underpinned by a sharp rise in refining margins due to supply disruptions in the Middle East.
Ampol runs one of Australia’s two refineries, where profit margins more than tripled in the first half to $28.26 per barrel following the start of the U.S. war with Iran.
It reported a more than nine-fold rise in earnings from its fuel and infrastructure (F&I) segment, while earnings from its convenience retail business rose 12%.
Underlying net profit after tax soared to a record A$857.2 million ($614.44 million) on a replacement cost basis for the half year ended June 30, compared with A$180.2 million a year earlier and comfortably beating the Visible Alpha consensus estimate of A$840 million.
Ampol declared an interim dividend of 185 Australian cents per share, more than quadrupling the prior year’s interim dividend of 40 Australian cents last year.
($1 = 1.3951 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Sherin Sunny and Keshav Singh Chundawat in Bengaluru; Editing by Mark Porter and Sonali Paul)
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