Viva Energy expects a before tax profit of $360m from the last two quarters of the 2022-2023 financial year, almost half the revenue recorded during the previous reporting period.
Its unaudited financial result for the six months ending June 30 this year show the still profitable result is being driven by the company’s convenience and commercial fuel arms.
The recently purchased Coles Express business returned a 3.0 per cent increase of sales compared with the previous two quarters.
Recovery of the aviation sector and international travel coupled with strong demand in resources, marine and wholesale is credited with driving a 15.1 per cent increase in Viva’s commercial and industrial arms.
The news is less rosy for what was once core-business for the Corio based refiner, announcing a before tax profit of $20 million from its energy and infrastructure arm that includes fuel refining.
Viva flagged profit losses for that side of the business in June after a crane contractor dropped a compressor used in the refining process.
It initially warned investors the incident could cost as much as $100m in lost earnings because of interruptions to production of high-margin fuels like diesel and premium gasoline.
The company has since revised its loss expectations to be between $30-40m, after it cashes in on an insurance policy covering the resulting production woes due to the crane failure.
Viva Energy’s share price hit an all time high of $3.25 in June, but has since dropped below the $3 mark and is currently trading at $2.94 a share.
Image: Viva Energy’s Corio based operations (Viva Energy).
