ESB doubles payout to State

The ESB has paid a dividend of €60m to the State for the first half of this year; double the amount it paid for the same period last year.

The increase reflected an improved financial performance with post-tax profit for the period rising by €109m, year-on-year, to €173m; operating profit increasing by 3.5% to €297m and revenues increasing marginally to €1.69bn.

The jump in after-tax profit was aided by the non-recurrence of negative non-cash fair value movements on inflation-linked interest rate swaps reflected in the company’s 2016 interim results.