The infrastructure investor Infratil has made a record half year profit of more than a $1 billion boosted by significant gain on the sale of Tilt Renewables.
Infratil chief executive Jason Boyes said said the company had gained close to $1b on the sale of its stake in Tilt. Photo: Supplied
Six months ended September vs same period year earlier:
- Net profit - $1.08 billion vs $27.8 million
- Revenue - $541.1m vs $244.1m
- Dividend - 6.5 cents per share vs 6.25cps
Chief executive Jason Boyes said the company had gained close to $1b on the sale of its stake in Tilt, but its diverse range of investments including Vodafone NZ, Trustpower, data centres, renewable energy, healthcare and Wellington Airport delivered a 28 percent rise in underlying profit to $253.6m.
The sale of Tilt allowed the company to repay a large amount of debt cutting its net debt to $366m, while it has nearly $2b available in cash and undrawn bank facilities.
Boyes said the Tilt proceeds were being reinvested to fund future expansion rather than being paid out to shareholders through a special dividend.
"This approach provides our shareholders with a solid and sustainably rising dividend and enables us to continue to prudently and productively deploy the capital in ideas that matter.
"Over the six months, we deployed $833.8m across digital infrastructure, global renewables, and social infrastructure, including our $313.6m investment in Pacific Radiology," he said.
"Along with our investment last year in Qscan and our more recent purchase of a stake in Auckland Radiology Group, we expect to generate meaningful synergies and reinvestment opportunities from our health businesses in the coming years."
He said Infratil's recent investment in renewable energy development in Asia was another avenue for growth, and it now had interests in the sector around the world.
Boyes said there was also strong potential for digital investments such as data centres, with CDC Data Centres expanding capacity, including two new facilities in Auckland, and its latest investment in a London data centre business, Kao Data.
"The market continues to value assets in the digital infrastructure and renewables sectors at significant premiums to Infratil's carrying values. We expect to see a growing awareness that healthcare assets are also becoming the next set of premium infrastructure assets."