Power station owner Drax Group announced soaring profits today with a tripling of first-half earnings after wholesale electricity prices continue to soar.
The firm, which owns Europe's largest coal-fired power station, said it would pay a special dividend of 80p a share, in addition to a planned ordinary dividend of 4p. Drax had previously said it would hand back between 75p and 80p to investors.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose to £239 million (€350.8 million) in the six months to June 30th from £72 million previously, the company said.
The average forecast of four analysts polled by Reuters last week had put EBITDA at £245 million.
Profit before tax for the half year jumped to £317 million from just £13 million previously, it said, after making an average £45.7 per megawatt hour for the electricity it sold, 52 per cent more than for the same period the year before.
The company, which was left broke in 2002 after wholesale electricity prices crashed before it went through a financial revamp last year, entered the FTSE 100 share index of top blue-chip companies in June.
Drax is raking in cash because, unlike many other energy utilities, it does not need to buy costly gas to make its power.