- BHP Billiton (NYSE:BHP) +7.4% premarket after reporting its weakest annual earnings since 2003 and cutting its long-term forecast for Chinese steel demand, but reiterating its pledge to fully maintains its dividend.
- BHP, the last of the big five global miners to report results, said its underlying attributable profit fell to $6.42B for the year to June, below analyst consensus of $7.73B and $13.26B a year earlier; net profit plunged 86%, with BHP taking $2.9B in post-tax charges, mainly on its U.S. shale and Nickel West businesses.
- BHP forecasts crude steel production in China to fall to 935M-985M metric tons in the mid 2020’s, after saying in May it expected China’s steel output to reach as much as 1.1B tons by the middle of the next decade, but it expects China’s broader economy to lift in the second half of this year, meeting its 7% growth target for 2015.
- The miner raises its full-year dividend to $1.24/share from $1.21, and reiterates its policy of maintaining or increasing its dividend, which costs at least $US6.5B/year; BHP has not cut its dividend since 1988, and did not rebase its dividend when it spun out South32 earlier this year.
- To help protect its dividend, BHP says it is cutting capital spending for the 2016 for the third time since February, to $8B.