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Aurizon dividends slashed as net profit drops

Rail and logistics company Aurizon has cut its final dividend after reporting a 15 per cent fall in its statutory profit for the June year.

Aug 08, 2022, updated Aug 08, 2022
Aurizon's dividend is down on a lower profit

Aurizon's dividend is down on a lower profit

Its net profit was $513 million, down from $607 million for 2021. The final dividend was cut to 10.9 cents a share, fully franked, a fall of 24 per cent on last year’s payout.

The EBITDA for the year was down 6 per cent because of lower volumes, lower historical catch-up revenue from the Wiggins Island Rail Project and lower fees from the Goonyella to Abbot Point expansion.

Coal EBITDA was up 1 per cent and the bulks business was down 7 per cent. Aurizon said that despite record prices for thermal and coking coal, exports were down for the 2022 year. However record grain export volumes were expected and volumes anticipated for the current year were elevated.

Aurizon said the 15 per cent fall in its net profit was caused by one-off benefits in the previous year, notably the tax benefit from the sale of an interest in Aquila. Also, the transaction cost from the takeover of One Rail were included in the 2022 result.

Managing director Andrew Hardin said it was a solid result.

“Group earnings have remained stable through continued strong operational performance and a number of revenue protection mechanisms that are in place,” Harding said.

He said the dividend yield was 5 per cent and $4.8 billion had been returned to shareholders over the past seven years through buybacks and dividends.

Aurizon’s guidance for the current year was an EBITA between $1.4 billion and $1.55 billion. It will include 11 months of contribution from One Rail, but offsetting this would be the wet weather impacts from July.

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The guidance does not include East Coast Rail, which Aurizon is selling.

Aurizon has signed a 10-year deal to haul the coal from Pembroke Resources’ new Olive Downs mine. It has also extended by five years the contract for Baralaba Coal’s thermal coal.

It has a new contract with Stanmore for the haulage of the BMC tonnes. The New Acland and Moolarben contracts ended in December,

 

 

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