Peabody Q1 Profit Soars 32% To $176.5M

By St. Louis Business Journal

Peabody Energy said its first-quarter profit jumped 32 percent to $176.5 million, up from $133.7 million a year earlier, as the company continues to expand in fast-growing Asian markets.

The St. Louis-based coal giant reported revenue of $1.7 billion, up 15 percent from $1.5 billion in the prior-year period, thanks to increased Australia pricing and higher U.S. volumes.

"Peabody is advancing multiple growth initiatives to serve the high-growth Asian markets," Chairman and Chief Executive Gregory Boyce said in the earnings release. "During the quarter, we made significant progress on a number of Australian mine expansions, entered into Chinese development agreements, expanded Indonesian supply sources, and announced a major throughput agreement for a proposed Western U.S. export facility."

Boyce said he saw continued evidence of coal's "global supercycle."

"Global demand is rising and supply remains constrained," he said. "We believe coal fundamentals will remain strong for decades, even as other energy forms are proven too expensive or too limited to provide reliable low-cost energy at significant scale."

Peabody Energy (NYSE: BTU), the world's largest private-sector coal company, recently announced plans to keep its headquarters in downtown St. Louis and expand its offices in the Gateway One building. The company reported a 2010 profit of $774 million on revenue of $6.9 billion.

Copyright 2011 American City Business Journals

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