Australia's Aurizon cuts earnings forecast on prolonged wet weather

(Reuters) - Australia's Aurizon Holdings on Monday reported a 34% fall in its first-half underlying profit and slashed its annual core earnings forecast, as prolonged wet weather and a derailment dented the rail-haulage firm's freight volumes.

The Queensland-based firm said it lowered the underlying EBITDA forecast for fiscal 2023 by 4% to between A$1.42 billion ($981.50 million) and A$1.47 billion, owing to the persistent rainy weather and a two-week derailment on the Blackwater line.

Aurizon's underlying EBITDA for fiscal 2022 was A$1.47 billion.

It was "a challenging period operationally, with prolonged flooding on the East Coast together with a number of significant third-party derailments and incidents that resulted in reduced volumes and revenue," said Chief Executive Officer Andrew Harding.

For the first-half of 2023, the company's underlying net profit after tax stood at A$169 million, compared with A$257 million a year ago.

Aurizon also declared an interim dividend of 7.0 Australian cents per share, down 33% from the 10.5 Australian cents dividend it declared a year ago.

"Overall, (the earnings were) soft with misses across all lines, which will surprise given the regulated nature of part of the business," Citi said, adding that income investors will be disappointed with the dividend.

Shares of the firm fell 9.2% to A$3.35 after the earnings update.

($1 = 1.4468 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Riya Sharma in Bengaluru; editing by Uttaresh.V)