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LONDON (Alliance News) - Dual-listed South32 Ltd said on Thursday it saw a rise in interim profit amid revenue growth due to strong production from its Australian operations, at Illawarra and Worsley.
Pretax profit for the six months to the end of December rose to USD870 million from USD603 million a year before, on revenue that grew by 9% to USD3.81 billion from USD3.49 billion.
Revenue primarily grew on its operational performance, buoyed by metallurgical coal production from Illawarra more than doubling to 3.1 million tonnes from 1.3 million tonnes, leading to associated revenue climbing to USD574 million from USD243 million.
Although alumina production from Worsley increased slightly, up 2% to 1.90 million tonnes from 1.87 million tonnes a year ago, the higher realised alumina sales price allowed revenue from Worsley to grow 29% to USD864 million from USD668 million.
South32 declared an ordinary dividend per share of 5.1 cents, up 19% from 4.3 cents a year before. It also declared a special dividend of 1.7 cents per share, though this was down 43% from 3.0 cents the prior year.
Production guidance for the year to the end of June was unchanged for the majority of South32's operations. However, for Illawarra the company increased its guidance, with total coal production now expected to be 6.5 million tonnes. This would be up from 4.2 million tonnes the year before.
"Our strong start to the year means that our production guidance is unchanged for all of our operations with the exception of Illawarra Metallurgical Coal where we have upgraded guidance by 7%," said Chief Executive Officer Graham Kerr.
Shares in South32 were up 3.0% at ZAR37.97 in Johannesburg, while London shares were up 1.6% at 208.40 pence on Thursday.