ALD shares fall nearly 10%
Declares lowest final dividend in a decade at 5 Au cents per share
Updates throughout with share moves, analyst & CEO comments
By Roshan Thomas
Feb 24 (Reuters) - Shares of Australian fuel retailer Ampol ALD.AX fell nearly 10% on Monday, after it reported a steep decline in annual profit and declared its lowest final dividend in a decade.
Ampol declared a final dividend of 5 Australian cents per share, compared with 120 Au cents announced a year earlier, and below Visible Alpha's consensus estimate of 7 Au cents.
Shares of the company were down 4.3% as of 0010 GMT, while the broader benchmark index .AXJO was down 0.6%.
Ampol reported net profit after tax from continuing operations of A$234.8 million ($149.5 million) on a replacement cost basis for the year ended December 31, compared with A$740.1 million a year earlier.
The fuel retailer attributed the lower profit to a weak fuels and infrastructure business, along with multiple outages at its Lytton refinery in Queensland.
Ampol's fuels and infrastructure business recorded earnings before interest and taxes $(EBIT)$ of A$186.3 million, a steep drop from A$736.5 million reported a year ago.
"The 2024 financial year was one of challenging global refining and commodity markets that impacted both our Lytton refinery and Trading and Shipping operations," CEO Matt Halliday said.
Ampol said it expects fiscal year 2025 capital expenditure of A$600 million and that the company would benefit from an A$50 million cost cutting program, which it announced in October last year.
The company reported its realized Lytton refining margin in January was US$6.31 per barrel.
"Ampol does rely heavily on its in-store retail income along with its fuel sales. The impact of sustained high interest rates has greatly reduced disposable income and discretionary spending," said Brad Smoling, managing director at Smoling Stockbrocking.
"If we combine the challenging global refining conditions to the balance sheet, Ampol will continue to find current head winds very difficult to navigate."
($1 = 1.5708 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Roshan Thomas and John Biju in Bengaluru; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Varun H K)
((John.Biju@thomsonreuters.com; Roshan.Thomas@thomsonreuters.com))
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