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Ithaca Energy PLC shares rose early Wednesday in London after reporting a big jump in half-year profit, confirming its dividend plans, and increasing its 2025 production guidance. Ithaca shares were up 8.1% to 192.60 pence on Wednesday morning in London. They were the best performers in the FTSE 250 index, itself down 0.5%. The North Sea-focused oil and gas company said pretax profit tripled to $146.2 million in the second quarter from $52.9 million a year before, as revenue more than doubled to $746.4 million from $361.6 million. For all of the first half of 2025, pretax profit was $513.4 million, up from $189.4 million, on $1.45 billion in revenue, up from $841.9 million. The bottom line showed a loss of $217.5 million for the first half, however, swung from $105.7 million profit a year before. This was due to a $730.9 million tax change, up from $83.7 million. Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation and exploration expenses was $1.12 billion, up from $533.0 million a year before. Ithaca considers adjusted Ebitdax its key profit measure. It defines it in full as ‘earnings before finance income, finance costs, taxation charges, premium payments on oil and gas derivative contracts, restructuring costs, revaluation gains or losses on financial instruments, depletion depreciation and amortisation, impairment charges on development and production assets, exploration and evaluation expenses and fair value remeasurements of contingent consideration’. Average production in the first half was 123,600 barrel of oil equivalent per day, up from 53,000 a year before. Ithaca raised its full-year guidance to between 119,000 and 125,000 boe per day from between 109,000 and 119,000. Operating expenditure per barrel of oil equivalent was reduced to $17.5 in the recent half-year from $27.3 a year before. ‘Our first-half results demonstrate the strength and resilience of our transformed business,’ says Executive Chair Yaniv Friedman. ‘With production more than doubling year-on-year and adjusted Ebitdax exceeding $1.1 billion, we are delivering on our strategy of disciplined investment and operational excellence.’ Ithaca declared a 10.1 US cents first interim dividend per share, representing a return to shareholders of $167 million. The company confirmed its 2025 dividend target of $500 million. It said it will accelerate its second interim dividend of $133 million to December. Ithaca confirmed its dividend policy for 2025 of paying 30% of post-tax cash flow from operations, the top of its capital allocation range of 15% to 30%. Adjusted net debt was reduced to $671.4 million as of June 30 from $884.9 million a year before. Copyright 2025 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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