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Gold/Mining/Energy : BHP -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Henrik who wrote (82)	2/8/2001 9:58:38 PM
From: Henrik	Respond to of 87

BHP net profit up 17.9pc to $1.4bn in first half 10:01, Thursday, 8 February 2001 Sydney - Thursday - February 8: (RWE) - BHP Ltd lifted net profit 17.9 per cent to a record $1.43 billion in the six months to December 31 from $1.21 billion in the first half of last year. Revenue rose 13.2 per cent to $10.51 billion from $9.28 billion. Operating profit was up 56.5 per cent to $2.08 billion from $1.33 billion. Basic earnings per share rose from 68.8c to 80.0c. Interim dividend is a steady, unfranked 25c, paid on December 6. Managing director Mr Paul Anderson said: "This is a solid half-year result that clearly demonstrates our success in positioning the company to take advantage of the upward swing in a number of key commodity markets. "While increased prices and positive exchange rate movements are a feature of this result, we reaped the benefit of those price increases by ensuring the right preparation during the aggressive clean-up of our asset base and ongoing optimisation of our remaining businesses." Mr Anderson said the result also demonstrated the commitment of the management team to delivering on established goals and objectives. "We have made significant progress in optimising the performance of each of our businesses with our return on capital now at 18 per cent compared to 10 per cent last financial year. "The quality of our portfolio has been further enhanced with most of our assets now SVA (shareholder value added) positive. "The recent performance of our WA HBI plant provides further confidence in the operational performance of that facility, particularly a production train campaign length of more than 140 days. "However, we are closely scrutinising the operation of the Venezuela HBI facility as it continues to experience significant commissioning difficulties, coupled with possible partner funding issues and a significant deterioration in the price received for the product due to the collapse of the US steel market and associated HBI market." Mr Anderson said: "Underlying cash operating costs in our copper, coal and iron ore businesses continue to decrease and we remain committed to achieving our annual average target of a 2 per cent real reduction in costs over the next three years. "Capital and operating investment in major structural changes to the way we conduct our business, such as e-commerce purchasing and the establishment of Shared Business Services, will increase our cost base this financial year, but will generate savings in future years." The company also announced an on-market buyback program for the purchase of up to 90 million of its shares (about 5 per cent of issued capital). Mr Anderson said: "BHP is now very much outward-looking and opportunity-focused and we have the necessary balance sheet strength, capital management disciplines and portfolio development opportunities to deliver continued growth in shareholder value. "We completed the spinout of OneSteel and acquisition of QCT Resources during the half-year, committed over $3.6 billion in major capital projects during the last calendar year and have identified an additional $1.2 billion in projects for board consideration this calendar year. "I am optimistic with regard to the remainder of this financial year. "While we face a slowing of economic growth in the next six months, we are well positioned as we move through the business cycle. "We have established a solid foundation of low-cost business performance, prices for many of our commodities are contracted through March and the industry dynamics are favourable with greater balance between supply and demand for our key commodity markets of copper, iron ore and coal." BHP closed yesterday at $19.06.