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BHP Billiton books $6.4-bn record loss
CANBERRA: The world’s biggest miner, BHP Billiton, reported a $6.4 billion loss, the worst full-year result in the Anglo-Australian company’s history.
CANBERRA: The world’s biggest miner, BHP Billiton, reported a $6.4 billion loss, the worst full-year result in the Anglo-Australian company’s history.
BHP said the result for the financial year ending June 30 came from a 31% fall in revenue to $30.1 billion amid weak commodity prices, write downs of US oil and gas assets and a disaster at a Brazilian mining joint venture.
BHP posted a $1.9 billion profit for the previous year, which was 14% of the $13.8 billion posted in 2013-14. In 2010-11, it posted its best results ever of $23.6 billion.
The latest result is the worst since the company headquartered in Melbourne, Australia, was formed in 2001 through the merger of two corporations founded in the 19th century — Australia’s Broken Hill Proprietary and London-listed Billiton .
A dam failure in November at an iron ore mine co-owned by BHP and Vale in Brazil caused the worst environmental disaster in the country’s history. Brazil’s Federal Public Prosecution launched a $43 billion civil suit in May for the disaster, against the joint venture Samarco. BHP has agreed to an initial payment of up to $1.3 billion. The Samarco dam failure cost the company $2.2 billion for the year. Weaker commodity prices cost $10.7 billion.
