SYDNEY, March 5, 2026, 17:55 AEDT
- Ampol shares are due to trade ex-dividend on March 6 for a 60 Australian cent final payout.
- The dividend is fully franked; the record date is March 9 and payment is due April 2.
- Investors are weighing the income draw against volatile refinery margins and an ongoing ACCC review of Ampol’s EG Australia deal.
Ampol Ltd ALD.AX is set to trade ex-dividend on Friday, putting a 60 Australian cent final dividend in focus for shareholders of the Australian fuel retailer. The stock was last around A$29.54, according to market data.
That ex-dividend date matters because it is the cut-off: buyers on or after March 6 will not receive the upcoming payout. Shares often drop by roughly the dividend amount when they switch to trading without the entitlement, though the move can be bigger or smaller.
Ampol’s investor calendar lists March 9 as the record date for the 2025 final dividend and April 2 as the payment date. The company has also flagged a group trading update for the March quarter and an annual general meeting on May 14.
The dividend is fully franked, meaning it carries Australian tax credits for company tax already paid. Market Index data put the “grossed-up” value at about A$0.857 a share for investors able to use those credits. Market Index
On the latest price, the cash payout works out to a little over 2% as a one-off return, before any price move on the day. For income investors, the question is whether the stock’s post-dividend move swamps the cheque.
But the dividend is not a free lunch. Refining margins at Ampol’s Lytton refinery in Queensland fell to $8.13 a barrel in January from $15.14 in the fourth quarter, Reuters reported last month, a reminder of how quickly earnings can swing in downstream oil businesses. “Investors are focused on the sharp drop in Lytton refining margins,” Greg Boland, a market strategy consultant at Moomoo Australia, said. Reuters
Ampol’s other near-term overhang is regulatory. The ACCC’s “preliminary assessment” of Ampol’s proposed takeover of EG Australia identified 54 sites that could raise competition concerns, ABC News reported earlier this week. Veteran RBC energy analyst Gordon Ramsay said the 54 sites were “a lot closer to Ampol’s original submission” that proposed divesting 19 sites. ABC News
Ampol said in a March 2 ASX release that it and EG have the chance to respond to the ACCC’s concerns and that, under the current timeframe, the regulator must issue a determination by June 5. The company said the ACCC’s updated assessment also left it reviewing “metropolitan-wide” effects in Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra.
