Caltex Australia Profit Jumps, Triples Dividend

   By Ross Kelly 
 

SYDNEY--Caltex Australia Ltd. (CTX.AU) beat guidance with a 48% rise in annual profit and tripled its final dividend, buoyed by wider refiner margins and stronger sales of premium fuels.

Net profit for calendar 2014 on a replacement-cost-of-sales basis, which excludes the value of the company's crude inventories, rose to 493 million Australian dollars (US$387 million), up from A$332 million a year earlier and beating the company's guidance of A$450 million-to-A$470 million.

Caltex declared a final dividend of A$0.50 per share, up from A$0.17 cents a year earlier.

The company's Lytton refinery in Brisbane benefited from tumbling crude oil prices, which widened refiner margins because product prices hadn't fallen as deeply. That helped Caltex's refining business swing to profit, compared with a deep loss in 2013.

Earnings at the fuel-marketing business rose 6% after higher sales of premium fuel, and jet fuel, helped offset a continuing long-term decline in demand for gasoline.

Caltex's historical cost profit, which includes the value of its inventories, fell 96% to A$20 million, due to lower oil prices.

Write to Ross Kelly at [e-mail]

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