BHP Billiton report first profit fall in around 3 years
Lower global prices for iron, copper and coal forced the world's leading miner BHP Billiton to report its first profit fall in around three years.
BHP Billiton on Wednesday said it suffered a fall of 6 per cent in half-year profit. Nevertheless, it pocketed $US9.94 billion as profits in six months through December 2011, more than the $US90 billion commodities trader Glencore and miner Xstrata would together have generated in all of the last year.
Revenue jumped 9.7 per cent to settle at US$37.48 billion year-on-year, while underlying return on capital remained at a strong level of 28 per cent.
Strong profit was mainly due to BHP Billiton's immensely profitable iron ore business- a strong point the miner shares with its biggest rival Rio Tinto.
Chief executive Marius Kloppers described the strong figures as a “strong & predictable performance”.
The company announced a dividend of 55 cents per share, up 19.6 per cent from the year-ago dividend of 46 cents.
However, shares in BHP Billiton dropped 0.8 per cent on Wednesday as the company announced lower-than-expected interim dividend.
