By David Winning
SYDNEY--Caltex Australia Ltd. (CTX.AU), one of Australia's
biggest producers of oil products such as gasoline, Thursday
signaled sharply higher profit in the first quarter of its fiscal
year.
Managing Director Julian Segal said the company's net profit
rose 69% in the three months through March on a
replacement-cost-of-sales basis, which excludes the value of the
company's crude inventories.
First-quarter net profit totaled 162 million Australian dollars
(US$129 million), up from A$96 million at the same stage of 2014.
The quarterly figure is unaudited pending a more complete
examination of the company's accounts.
Caltex's historical cost profit, which includes the value of its
inventories, also rose, to A$174 million. The figure includes a
gain of A$12 million after tax on the value of oil held in storage
at sites such as its Lytton refinery in Brisbane. A year earlier,
the company's historical cost profit totaled A$121 million.
-Write to David Winning at david.winning@wsj.com
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