By Pietro Lombardi
MADRID (Reuters) -The CEO of Spanish oil company Repsol on Thursday confirmed the group’s outlook for shareholder payouts despite a near halving in third-quarter profit linked to a slump in oil refining margins.
Like larger peers including France’s TotalEnergies and BP, Repsol has been hit by a significant decline in refining margins amid weaker global economic activity and new refineries coming online.
“As we move forward, our strategic priorities remain intact,” CEO Josu Jon Imaz said in a statement, adding that shareholders will get “between 25 and 35% of our cash flow from operations”.
Separately, the company said it would hike the interim dividend it pays in January by 19%.
Shares in Repsol were up 1.5% in early trading, making it the second best performer of the blue-chip IBEX 35 index, which was down 0.3%.
Third-quarter adjusted net profit fell around 50% to 558 million euros ($605.7 million), it said on Thursday, down from 1.1 billion euros a year earlier and slightly below a company-provided average forecast of 567 million euros.
Net profit fell 88% to 166 million euros.
Refining margins declined more than 70% from the same period of last year.
($1 = 0.9212 euros)
(Reporting by Pietro Lombardi, editing by Inti Landauro and Jan Harvey)
