(Alliance News) - Oil & lubricants retailer Vivo Energy PLC hiked its interim dividend Thursday after profit and revenue rose in a "resilient" performance with rising volumes sold.
For the six months ended June, pretax profit widened 4.0% to USD118.3 million from USD113.8 million the year prior. This was after revenue rose 6.3% to USD3.90 billion from USD3.67 billion the year before.
"We have continued to drive our business forward during the half-year and delivered resilient financial results," Vivo Executive Chair Christian Chammas said.
Vivo proposed a 1.11 US cent per share interim dividend, up 67% from 0.665 cents a year prior.
"Volumes grew by 8% to 4,985 million litres, with lower volumes in certain Shell-branded markets being offset by the impact of the new Engen markets, following completion of the transaction in March," Chammas added. "We were pleased to see gross cash unit margins stabilise at USD70 per thousand litres for the period, broadly in line with how we finished 2018 and above the average of the first quarter."
Volumes grew 7.6% to 4.98 billion litres from 4.63 billion litres a year before. Meanwhile, gross cash unit margin narrowed to USD70 per thousand litres from USD74 a year prior.
"Looking to the rest of the year, we remain on track to achieve our expectations and are excited by the opportunities that we face across our expanded market footprint", Chammas continued.
Shares in Vivo were 2.2% lower at 117.40 pence in London on Thursday, untraded at ZAR21.86 in Johannesburg.