AGL rings in with trebled profit
AGL Energy has more than tripled its net profit to $388.7 million.
The company that was publicly chided earlier this month for its harassment of customers who were two days late paying their bills, said today its 64 per cent increase in underlying operating cash flow was assisted by “continued improvements in debtor management”.
AGL had been criticised by consumer representatives for its use of automated phone calls to customers just two days after missed bill payments. The calls threatened customers with “disconnection, further charges including legal costs and a possible default listing”.
The company undertook to pull back on the process.
Today, the company said it had been a good year.
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Underlying profit of $598.3 million was up 24.1 per cent on 2011/12.
It declared a final dividend of 33.0 cents per share, fully-franked.
“This has been a good year for AGL,” AGL Managing Director, Michael Fraser, said in a statement today. “Our core retail and merchant businesses both performed strongly against a backdrop of continued soft demand for energy and strong competition in our key markets.
“The growth in operating cash flow, up 64 percent, was a highlight of the year.
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“I’m also delighted with the integration of Loy Yang into our business.
“The power station has performed reliably and its earnings contribution has met the expectations we set at the time we acquired it. A measure of the success of the integration has been the improvement in the safety record at Loy Yang, with the total injury frequency rate falling more than 30 per cent.”
Loy Yang power station is in Victoria’s south east Gippsland region.
The statement also said that while the New South Wales Government was yet to finalise proposed changes to the regulations regarding the exploration and development of coal seam gas, AGL has considered it prudent to recognise a provision for impairment of the book value of its NSW gas projects, resulting in a $343.7 million pre-tax impairment charge for the year ended 30 June 2013.
The Underlying Operating Cash Flow before Interest and Tax increased by $481.3 million to $1,232.0 million, an increase of 64.1 percent.
“The major contributors to this improvement were the incremental earnings from Loy Yang and continued improvements in debtor management,” the company said.
The AGL Dividend Reinvestment Plan will operate in respect of the dividend.
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