Infratil has made a record first half net profit of $398.8 million resulting from the sale of its Australian energy assets.
The diversified investment company's total income for the period was just over $852 million up 7.2 percent on last year.
The $336.7 million gain on the sale of its Australian IEA group drove net profit up 73 percent in the six months ended September, from $230 million last year.
Infratil's Tim Brown said the recent asset sales meant the company now has over $600 million on deposit with its banks, with plans to return about $145 million to shareholders.
"On the 15 December shareholders will be paid a special dividend of 15 cents, in addition to the ordinary dividend, which will be 4.5 cents.
"So that's a total of about $109 million and then in the first quarter next year, we will be doing a buy-back which is expected to involve us spending $36 million buying our own shares."