DENMARKs Dong Energy has said the Brexit vote has not dimmed the company’s enthusiasm for the UK offshore renewables market after growing profits from wind farms by two thirds.

The energy giant’s wind farm division increased underlying earnings by 68 per cent to 5.2 billion crowns (£0.6bn) in the six months to 30 June from 3.1bn in the same period last year.

The growth in earnings partly reflected the benefit of increased investment in UK waters by Dong, which operates six windfarms off England.

The company is developing the Hornsea facility off Yorkshire, which it says will be the largest offshore windfarm in the world.

The programme was sanctioned long before the shock vote in June for the UK to leave the European Union.

However, the result of the referendum has not changed Dong’s view of what it believes to be an attractive market.

“The decision for the UK to exit the European Union is in our view unlikely to result in any fundamental changes to the UK offshore wind sector,” said the company.

“We believe the ongoing transformation of the UK energy system is driven by national objectives for security of supply, cost effectiveness, decarbonisation and industrial development more than the EU membership. We will be looking forward to engaging with the new government and to continue to support the UK’s development of a modernised, green and efficient energy system.”

The windfarm division also operates off Germany and Holland. Its success helped offset a fall in first half profits at Dong’s oil and gas division, to DKK2.7bn from DKK5.2bn.

This largely reflected the effect of the crude price slump on the business, which has a stake in the giant Laggan Tormore development off Shetland that Total brought onstream in February.

Announcing plans for a flotation in May, Dong said it had a low cost oil and gas portfolio centred around three high-quality assets in the North Sea.

However, earnings from the UK oil and gas business fell 50 per cent in the first half, to DKK152m from DKK306m.

The company reduced its exposure to the oil and gas market last month when it sold stakes in five Norwegian fields to Aberdeen-based Faroe Petroleum for around £50m.

The flotation that Dong completed on the Nasdaq Copenhagen exchange last month valued the group at around £10bn, and was the biggest completed on a European stock market this year.

It followed a share offering which allowed Goldman Sachs investment bank to make a big gain on the investment it made in Dong in 2013.

Shares in the firm have increased from DKK235 crowns to around DKK280 since the flotation.

The success of the exercise suggested investors shared Dong’s confidence in the prospects for the UK renewables business.

The company said yesterday that its systematic efforts to reduce the costs of offshore power have been paying off.

Group earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation increased to DKK12.4bn in the first half from DKK10.4bn.

Dong noted growth in wind farm earnings was partly due to the Westernmost Rough farm in the North Sea achieving full output in May 2015.

The company sold 50 per cent of the planned Burbo Bank extension wind farm off Liverpool to the owners of the Lego toys business and a Danish pension fund in February.