Envestra H1 profit up 32 percent

SYDNEY, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Envestra Ltd (ENV.AX), Australia's biggest natural gas distributor, on Wednesday posted a 32 percent rise in its first half net profit, due to higher revenues from an increased number of customers.

Envestra said in a statement profit before tax was A$28.8 million ($26.9 million) for the six months ended Dec. 31, while profit after tax was A$171.4 million.

Envestra, whose largest shareholders are Australia's APA Group Ltd (APA.AX) and Hong Kong's Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings Ltd (1038.HK), declared an interim distribution of 5.7 Australian cents.

Shares in Envestra, which has assets of about A$2.5 billion, have fallen about 19 percent since the start of the year to Tuesday's close of A$0.77, compared with a 10.6 percent fall in the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index .AXJO. ($1=A$1.07) (Reporting by Fayen Wong)