Seplat Energy Plc, the London-listed Nigerian oil driller where billionaire mogul Tony Elumelu bought a 20.1 per cent interest on the eve of this year, reported a surge of more than fivefold in net profit for the half-year 2026, compared to a year ago.
Shares in the corporation had gained 0.6 per cent as of 12:46 WAT in Lagos, where they have primary listing after the results were issued on Thursday.
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On the London Stock Exchange, where the stock has been up by 118 per cent in the past 52 weeks, the share price has appreciated by 0.9 per cent as of 13:01 BST.
According to its latest earnings report, revenue added 15.5 per cent to reach N2.5 trillion, though the robust earnings improvement owed more to cost reduction than to topline growth, with cost of sales as a percentage of turnover dropping to 55.2 per cent from 65.3 per cent.
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Purposeful cost management could be seen playing out across other key expenditure categories, including general and administrative costs, which weakened by more than one-fifth to N166.4 billion, helped by a cutback in the spend on employee and share-based benefits.
Also, net finance cost retreated by 24.8 per cent to N107 billion as debt servicing moderated.
EBITDA margin slid to 51.6 per cent from 52.6 per cent.
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“Our first-half performance benefited from a supportive commodity price environment, translating into strong cash generation,” said Roger Brown, the British CEO who is leaving the role on Saturday after six years at the helm.
He was alluding to the windfall luck that the escalation of the Middle East crisis brought the company during the period, with Brent crude averaging $86.7/bbl in the first half of the year, 23 per cent higher than a year ago.
The average realised crude oil price of Seplat, which sold N2.2 trillion worth of crude oil to buyers including ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell West and Vitol in the six months to June, rose 30 per cent.
“Given the limited visibility on how long these elevated prices may persist, we prioritised balance sheet strength during the quarter, repaying $200 million of our outstanding APF debt, equivalent to 20 per cent of gross debt,” Mr Brown also disclosed.
Profit before tax went up by 74.1 per cent to N790.4 billion, while profit for the period leapt to N225.5 billion from N42.5 billion.
In a separate announcement on Thursday, the corporation announced an interim dividend per share of USD5 cents for Q2 2026, compared to USD4.6 cents a year ago, and a special dividend of USD7 cents.
READ ALSO: Seplat Energy appoints Elumelu as chairman, names new CEO
It anticipates distributing as much as USD68.3 cents per share ($410 million) to shareholders this year, hoping that its planned purchase of a 10 per cent interest in the NNPCL-SEPNU joint venture will boost shareholder returns.
Last December, Mr Elumelu, the current chairman of Transnational Corporation Plc who retires as the chair of United Bank for Africa next month, acquired the 20.7 per cent stake, previously held by Maurel & Prom Group in Seplat.
He procured the 120.4 million shares estimated in the neighbourhood of $500 million through Heirs Energies Limited and Heirs Holdings, making him currently the company’s top shareholder.
He will take over the chairmanship of the directors’ board in January, following the exit of Udoma Udo Udoma.
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