Viva Energy Group Limited has provided an operating update for the three months ended 31 December 2024 (4Q2024), the unaudited financial result for the 12 months ended 31 December 2024 (FY2024) and an update on the Geelong Refinery outage that occurred on 12 January 2025.
4Q2024 operating update
Total Group sales volumes were 4.4 billion litres (BL), +0.8% compared to 4Q2023.
Commercial & Industrial (C&I) achieved a record quarterly sales result of 3BL, particularly supported by Aviation, Transport and Agriculture.
Convenience and Mobility (C&M) fuel sales grew 2.0% compared to 4Q2023, driven by network growth in the OTR and Liberty Convenience networks and seasonally stronger consumer demand.
Convenience and quick-service restaurant sales (excluding tobacco) were broadly flat which, together with improved gross margin (40.4%), largely offset the margin impact from lower tobacco sales.
Four Reddy Express stores have been converted to the OTR offer in NSW and South Australia, with early sales uplifts in line with expectations.
The Geelong Refining Margin (GRM) was US$6.7/BBL on crude intake of 9.3MBBLs. Production of refined products was negatively impacted by late crude arrivals, an unplanned outage of the residual catalytic cracking unit (RCCU) and other minor planned maintenance which reduced intake. No federal government support is expected to be received for 4Q2024.
Capability to receive and process waste and bio-genic feedstocks to produce recycled plastics at Geelong Refinery was installed in December, with first trial batch completed.
Viva Energy received ACCC approval for the Liberty Convenience acquisition (subject to a court enforceable divestiture undertaking) in December 2024 and FIRB approval in January 2025. The consideration will be disclosed once 2024 financial information becomes available and will be funded through existing debt facilities. Viva Energy expects to complete the acquisition on 31 March 2025.
Unaudited FY2024 result
Unaudited Group EBITDA (RC) 7 is expected to be approximately $750 million in FY2024 as solid growth from the C&I business offset challenging retail and refining conditions.
C&M FY2024 EBITDA (RC) is expected to be near the bottom of its guidance range (between $230 million and $260 million), with retail fuel margins lower than the same period last year and illicit tobacco continuing to affect both the OTR and Reddy Express businesses.
Geelong Refinery unplanned outage update
As disclosed on 13 January 2025, there was a power outage at the Geelong Refinery on 12 January 2025 due to an external interruption in the power supply, coincident with a lightning storm in the area. The outage caused an unscheduled shutdown across all process units.
Restart activities have been successful, with normal production resuming last week. The EBITDA (RC) impact of the outage is expected to be approximately A$20 million.
