Centamin hikes dividend as interim pre-tax profit rises

12th Aug 2015 08:22

(ShareCast News) - Gold miner Centamin hiked its interim dividend by 11% after reporting an increase in pre-tax profit in the first six months of the year.The group saw its first half pre-tax profit jump 48.5% year-on-year to $47.4m, while revenue rose 26.4% to $259.7m and pre-tax profit before exceptional items edged 18.9% higher to $72.2m in the period.Meanwhile, the FTSE 250 group said that in the second quarter pre-tax profit surged 66.3% year-on-year to $18.8m, while revenue climbed 21% to $124.2m."Centamin is pleased to have generated strong cash flows, allowing both increased dividend payments to shareholders and continued investment in exploration, despite the continued pressure on the gold price," said group chief executive Andrew Pardy.The company, which last month reaffirmed its full-year production guidance, added it was free of debt and $212.6m worth of cash, gold sales receivables, and available-for-sale financial assets at the end of June."We are expecting second half production to improve significantly, and Centamin reiterated its recently upped full-year 2015 production guidance of 430,000 to 440,000 ounces of gold," analysts at Shore Capital said in a note."We had opined that the original guidance was likely to prove a low-ball to cater for potential underperformance, and we believe there to still be potential upside to current guidance."Centamin lifted its interim dividend 11% year-on-year to 0.97 cents per share.Centamin shares were up 2.27% to 55.89p at 0841 BST on Wednesday.