Wesfarmers‘ officials have credited their conglomerate structure for a 13.2% increase in half-year net profits to $1.57 billion. This result was well above the street’s expectation of $1.47 billion.
The company announced it will increase its interim dividend to $1.03 from 91 cents, payable on March 28th. Wesfarmers’ revenue grew by 4.3% to $34.9 billion, and EBIT were up 15.1% to 2.42 billion.
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The strongest results from the conglomerate came from the industrial division, where earnings rose from $22 million to $377 million, largely from the $256 million turnaround in resources as coal prices moved higher during the quarter.
On the other side of the ledger, Coles’ same store sales grew by 1.3%, but lower prices meant revenue from the supermarket remained steady and earnings fell 6.8% .
