Shares in Ireland-headquartered energy to distribution group DCC jumped over 12% in London trade today after it reported higher profits for the seasonally less significant first half of the year.
Its revenues fell in the six months to the end of September, however.
DCC sells LPG, operates service stations and electric vehicle fast-charging networks and also distributes medical and electronic products.
It said its group adjusted operating profits rose by 12% to £247.6m from £221.2m the same time last year. But half year revenues fell by 11.3% to £9.616 billion from £10.837 billion.
The company said its interim dividend increased by 5% to 63.04 pence per share.
DCC also said today it had agreed to Progas, a leading distributor of LPG in Germany.
The deal, which is still subject to customary regulatory approval, represents DCC Energy's largest acquisition to date in Germany and will considerably expand its customer base in Germany to over 100,000 customers.
Progas is a leading distributor of LPG in Germany and has a customer base of over 70,000 domestic and commercial customers.
It distributes the equivalent of about 330 million litres of LPG annually via its nationwide supply, filling and distribution network and employs about 350 people.
Under the terms of today's deal, its management team will continue to lead the business from its headquarters in Dortmund.
Donal Murphy, DCC's chief executive, said the company delivered strong profit growth in the first half of its financial year.
"Although the macro environment remains volatile, DCC continued to perform thanks to our resilient and diverse business," the CEO said.
He noted that DCC Energy traded strongly while continuing to execute the Cleaner Energy in Your Power strategy the company had outlined earlier this year.
"During the period we committed to seven acquisitions aligned to our strategic priorities to give all our customers the power to choose a cleaner energy future," he said.
On the deal for Progas, Mr Murphy said it will scale DCC Energy's position in Europe's largest energy market.
"The acquisition of Progas will enable DCC to accelerate the growth of our Energy Solutions business
in Germany focusing on LPG, renewable LPG, solar, and additional energy management services,
where DCC can become the trusted cleaner energy partner to every customer," he added.
Breaking down its divisions, DCC Energy reported operating profits of £170.6m up almost 29% on the £132.5m reported the same time last year. It sold a total of 7.184 billion litres of fuel in the six month period, a dip of 0.2% on the same time last year.
DCC Energy said it had committed £310.5m to acquisitions in the first half of the year with five of the seven acquisitions in energy management services.
"We have now built strong capability in energy management services in France, the UK, Ireland, Norway and the Netherlands. We also made two LPG acquisitions. The larger of the two, Progas, significantly increases our scale in Germany, Europe's largest energy market," the company added.
Operating profits at its DCC Energy Solutions division jumped by 33% to £104.1m from £78.1m last year. It said that volumes of traditional fuels and lower carbon LPG were very modestly ahead of the prior year.
DCC sold 48 million litres of HVO biofuel, up from 27 million litres the same time last year.
Its customers across Ireland and the UK include Dublin Airport operator daa, Dublin Port, the Royal Mail and the British Antarctic Survey.
Operating profits at its DCC Energy Mobility division rose by 22.5% to £66.5m from £54.4m.
The company continued to invest in EV charging across the network and added EV capability to 122 sites in total, almost doubling the number of sites from 64 a year ago. It added that it will look to deploy EV charging on 300-400 of its retail sites by 2030.
Meanwhile, operating profits at DCC Healthcare fell by 11.3% to £38.3m from £43.2m last year due to the challenging conditions seen by DCC Health and Beauty Solutions.
And operating profits at DCC Technology were 15% lower at £38.7m from £45.5m due to lower market demand for consumer technology products.
The company said this continued the trend seen in the second half of the previous year, although the business maintained market share during the six month period.
