$17.8bn: Bhp Goes From Boom To Best

The Age

Tuesday August 19, 2008

By Barry FitzGerald, Resources Editor

BHP Billiton, the world's largest mining company, has delivered the biggest profit in Australian corporate history - a record $17.8 billion.

The record trumps the Melbourne-based company's $15.49 billion profit in the previous year, and is its seventh consecutive record result.

Managing director Marius Kloppers said BHP would celebrate the result by increasing its annual dividend by 49%.

And he played down concerns about recent global economic turmoil and slowing growth in China affecting demand for commodities and future profits.

"If I look at the long term, there is nothing that changes my view of where China is going to over the long run," he said.

The global slowdown has already triggered a retreat in commodity prices from record levels, but Mr Kloppers said those moves were short-term.

"Our long-term view is that the demand side will be robust," he said.

BHP's profits will rise higher again next year because the benefits of an 85% rise in the price of iron ore and a tripling of coal prices did not kick in until April 1 this year.

This will result in BHP tipping even more company tax into the Government's coffers than the $US3.4 billion it paid this year and the $US2.8 billion it paid last year, helping to cushion the Government and the broader Australian economy from the effects of a global downturn.

© 2008 The Age

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