Veteran investor and Washington H Soul Pattinson chairman Robert Millner has pointed to record coal prices helping insulate one of Australia’s oldest conglomerates against rising inflation, interest rates, and the threat of an economic downturn,

Soul Patts, which holds a 40 per cent stake in coal miner New Hope, on Wednesday posted a 154 per cent jump in full-year underlying earnings (excluding one-offs) to $834.6 million, in its first financial year report since taking over investment group Milton.

With its final dividend rising more than 19 per cent to 43c per share, the conglomerate said it was “well positioned for rising interest rates, inflation and any potential downturn in the business cycle”.

Milner told this masthead that its interest in Whitehaven had delivered a significant boost to its bottomline, with record high prices for thermal coal, used to generate electricity, boosting Whitehaven and Soul Patts’ coffers.

“Coal mining is unbelievable,” he said. “If you go back to August 2020, the price of thermal coal was U$48 a tonne, and a lot of producers were losing money. And this morning, it’s U$440 a tonne.”

New Hope this week reported a 143 per cent rise in revenue to $2.6 billion for the year ending July 31, while its net profit rose from $79 million to $983 million. The price it receives for its coal rose from $101 in the previous financial year to as high as $493.5 a tonne in the fourth quarter.

And the supply/demand imbalance - driven by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine - is expected to keep prices high.

“The phone’s ringing from Europe every night trying to get coal from Australia, to the very obviously short on energy Europe. And Germany hasn’t even got an LNG depot,” Millner says.

He’s not alone in seeing good times ahead.