BHP Billiton springs a dividend surprise on shareholders
The mining group’s increased dividend accompanies an eightfold increase in profit, and signals growing confidence as commodity prices rebound
Sydney — Mining giant BHP Billiton rewarded shareholders with a bigger than expected dividend on Tuesday, signalling its growing confidence amid a resurgence in commodity prices. The world’s biggest miner reported a nearly eightfold rise in underlying first-half net profit to $3.24bn, from $412m a year earlier and just missing market forecasts for $3.4bn. It declared a first-half dividend of 40c, up from 16c a year ago. "This is a strong result that follows several years of a considered and deliberate approach to improve productivity and redesign our portfolio and operating model," CEO Andrew Mackenzie said in a statement. The result follows an unexpected surge in commodity prices in 2016, on renewed demand from China, that delivered windfall profits for miners, with iron ore prices climbing more than 80% and coal as much as 300%. BHP said the board had boosted the interim dividend by 10c from the minimum required under its 50% dividend payout policy, beating a consensus of 34c per ...
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