Oz APA's Annual Profit Up

Australia’s biggest gas infrastructure firm APA Group’s net profit for the 12-month period ended June 30, 2018 was A$264.8mn ($195mn), up 11.8% year on year thanks to an expanded asset base, it said August 22.

The company has been on an investment drive since FY2017 which will culminate in FY2019. Since the start of the investment phase, APA has invested more than $1bn on a range of energy infrastructure assets, all underwritten by long-term contracts with its customers, the company said. APA plans to invest another A$425mn during the 12-month period that will end June 30, 2019. “Some of those projects have already commenced contributing to APA’s future operating cash flow with the full uptick in revenues to flow from FY2020 with the completion of all projects in FY2019,” it said.

“We also see a significant number of growth opportunities that remain ahead of APA, having identified more than A$4bn worth of prospects across gas pipeline development, gas and renewable power generation and other potential projects over the next four to five years,” managing director Mick McCormack said.

APA did not provide any new information about takeover bid from a consortium led by Hong Kong-based CK Infrastructure Holdings. APA Group August 13 said it has accepted the A$13bn ($9.8bn) takeover bid from the consortium. “There are, at this stage, no further updates to the information provided on 13 August,” APA said.