Coal Profit Advances Fivefold on Fuel Prices
U.K. Coal Plc, the nation’s largest producer of the fuel, said full-year profit rose more than fivefold on record prices and a jump in the value of its property holdings.
Net income increased to 94 million pounds ($187 million), or 59.9 pence a share, from 17.5 million pounds, or 11.7 pence, a year earlier, the Doncaster, England-based company said today in a statement distributed by the Regulatory News Service. Sales dropped 3.3 percent to 328.5 million pounds.
“The world coal price has almost doubled. We have successfully moved our overall sales prices closer to the market price,” Chairman David Jones said in the statement.
Coal prices gained amid rising demand and transport bottlenecks in other producing countries including South Africa and Australia. The fuel from Richards Bay, South Africa, a European benchmark price, advanced 88 percent last year.
U.K. Coal said its average selling price for the fuel rose 15 percent in 2007. The company’s property portfolio valuation increased 21 percent to 411 million pounds. The company won’t pay a dividend on its 2007 earnings.
U.K. Coal rose 5 pence, or 1.1 percent, to 458 pence as of 8:08 a.m. on the London Stock Exchange. The shares have declined 1.5 percent this year, valuing the company at 714.9 million pounds.
Source: Bloomberg
Tags: fuel costs, profits, U.K. Coal, UK