Company is the worlds largest diversified resources group. It has seven divisions: Petroleum, Aluminium, Base Metals, Carbon Steel materials, Diamonds and speciality products, Energy coal and Stainless steel materials.

            Red = 25 day moving average.           Green = 200 day moving average.

SALES PER ACTIVITY (Data as of 30/06/2006)

Carbon steel:   28%
Oil:                18%
Aluminum:       15%
Basic metals:   15%
Coal:               9%
Stainless steel: 9%
:                    3%
Diamonds,
minerals, etc:   3%

BHP Billiton confirms approach made to Rio Tinto, Rio Tinto rejected proposal
AFX


LONDON (Thomson Financial) - BHP Billiton PLC said it approached the board of Rio Tinto about a possible combination of the two companies but that Rio Tinto rejected the proposal.

BHP Billiton said it has again written to Rio Tinto and intends to continue to seek an opportunity to meet and discuss its proposal.

BHP Billiton said it made the announcement following recent speculation in relation to a potential offer for Rio Tinto at a premium.

& the sp went from 1730p to 1850p in nano seconds!

It was quick, makes one think !!

BHP to keep oil, gas business despite Rio bid: analysts
Mon Nov 12, 2007 7:10 AM GMT
Email This Article | Print This Article | RSS [-] Text [+] By Fayen Wong

SYDNEY (Reuters) - BHP Billiton Ltd/Plc (BHP.AX: Quote, Profile , Research) (BLT.L: Quote, Profile , Research) was unlikely to offload its lucrative petroleum division to help fund a $140 billion takeover bid for rival Rio Tinto (RIO.AX: Quote, Profile , Research) (RIO.L: Quote, Profile , Research), analysts said.

BHP is poised to reap major returns from the business, with some of its biggest oil and gas projects due to come onstream in the next two years.

"Selling the assets right now, ahead of completing major developments, means they won't be able to realize the maximum value," said Warren Edney, a resource analyst at ABN AMRO.


Analysts said BHP's strong balance sheet meant it should easily be able to secure the financing needed for such a deal without having to sell the petroleum business to raise funds.

British newspapers reported over the weekend that BHP may look to sell its oil and gas arm for $40 billion to help fund a bid for Rio, which is not in the oil business.

A BHP spokeswoman declined to comment on the report.

BHP has so far proposed an all-scrip bid to Rio, which has rejected the offer, and fund managers have suggested it may need to sweeten the offer with a cash component. Continued...

© Reuters 2007. All Rights Reserved. | Learn more about Reuters

The chart would suggest we are heading down to the 1400 - 1500p range, but with the possible merger rumour I can't make my mind up which way the sp is heading. In the long term this has got to be a good investment (Falkland Isles etc), imo.

Source ABC News:
"BHP Billiton says it is planning to scale back some of its South African aluminium operations because of the country's power emergency.

South Africa's state power company, Eskom, is forcing major firms to reduce their energy use by 10 per cent because it cannot meet demand.

BHP says it has begun talking to its employees about closing part of its Bayside smelter on the country's east coast.

It is also reducing output at another two of its South African smelters and says in total, aluminium production will fall by about one third."

So, production will fall, thus reducing BLT revenue, but the shortage should push up the price of Aluminium, so...........??? Who knows?

SYDNEY, Nov 18 Reuters) - "BHP Billiton Ltd/Plc says it wants to develop one of Australia's largest untapped uranium deposits, after the state government where the deposit is located lifted a ban on mining the nuclear power feedstock.

The 10-kilometre-long (6 miles) Yeelirrie deposit, located about 1,000 km north of Perth in west Australia, is estimated to contain about 52,000 tonnes of uranium.

That's 7 percent more than total world production last year, according to figures from the World Nuclear Association.

Prices have fluctuated widely in recent years, with uranium currently selling for about $48 a pound.

BHP said it had notified the Western Australia government it was initiating a drilling exploration program to confirm the amount of uranium at the long-dormant Yeelirrie deposit, discovered in 1972.

Western Australia on Monday officially ended its ban on uranium mining, paving the way for miners to step up exploration inside its borders.

The state's newly-elected Leader Colin Barnett ran a successful campaign on support for uranium mining, predicting new mines could be dug within five years to meet international demand, in turn generating millions of dollars in royalties for the state.

A BHP spokesman declined to provide a timetable for developing the project."

Information is to be released regarding a joint venture with Bhp billington and Cambridge Minerals resources. As this company is started to exstract big amounts of Gold in Columbia and makes this company worth buying into CMR price in region of 8p.

RNS 05.06.09 - Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton announce West Australian Iron Ore Production Joint Venture

Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton today signed a non-binding agreement to establish a production joint venture covering the entirety of both companies' Western Australian iron ore assets. The joint venture will encompass all current and future Western Australian iron ore assets and liabilities and will be owned 50:50 by BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto.

The joint venture is expected to unlock significant value from the companies' overlapping, world-class resources. Both companies believe the net present value of these unique production and development synergies will be in excess of US$10 billion (100 per cent basis). These substantial synergies are anticipated to come from:
*Combining adjacent mines into single operations;
*Reducing costs through shorter rail hauls and more efficient allocations of port capacity;
*Blending opportunities which will maximise product recovery and provide further operating efficiencies;
*Optimising future growth opportunities through the development of consolidated, larger and more capital efficient expansion projects;
* Combining the management, procurement and general overhead activities into a single entity.

The joint venture will operate as a cost centre and deliver iron ore, in equal volumes, to ships designated by BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto to sell independently through their own marketing groups. In order to equalise the contribution value of the two companies, BHP Billiton will pay Rio Tinto US$5.8 billion for equity type interests at financial close to take its interest in the joint venture from 45 per cent to 50 per cent.

Senior management of the entity will be determined jointly on the basis of the 'best person for the job' with broadly equal participation from Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton. The initial Chairman of the non-executive owners' council will be Sam Walsh, currently Rio Tinto Chief Executive Iron Ore, and the initial CEO of the production joint venture will be BHP Billiton Iron Ore President, Ian Ashby. Future CEOs will be appointed by mutual consent."

Final results wednesday 12th Aug '09.

Business Financial Newswire
"Mining giant BHP Billiton reported full year revenues fell 15.6% to $50.211bn and an attributable profit before expectionals down 30.2% at $10.72bn. The miner said this was a strong financial result, despite challenging market conditions.

Billiton said it had record net operating cash flow of $18.9bn, underlying EBIT margin 40.1% and underlying return on capital of 24.6%.

The group said it maintained a strong balance sheet, with net debt of $5.6bn, gearing of 12.1% and underlying EBITDA interest cover of 57 times.

Full year dividend was raised 17.1% to 82 cents per share.

Capital and exploration expenditure amounted to $10.7bn in the year.

The group said lower sales volumes (predominantly in Base Metals and Manganese) reduced Underlying EBIT by $2.523bn. Copper sales volumes were impacted by lower ore grade and reduced output from milling operations at Escondida (Chile). Manganese sales volumes decreased significantly due to weaker demand.

This was partially offset by stronger volumes, predominantly in Iron Ore, which increased Underlying EBIT by $158m.

Costs increased by $2.528bn compared to the corresponding period last year. This included the impact of higher non-cash costs of $153 million. The bulk of the cost increases took place in the first half of the financial year. "

Goes ex-divi wed 2nd sept '09. (24.9p)

Business Financial Newswire
"BHP Billiton downgraded to neutral from buy at Barclays Wealth, fair value 1950p"

Sp already back to pre-credit crunch level.

Broker note from Merrill Lynch:
"BHP has announced that it will acquire Athabasca Potash for C$341 mn (US$320 mn). Athabasca is a Toronto listed junior that owns the Burr Potash project and various exploration properties in Saskatchewan, Canada. The Burr project is Adjacent to BHPs Jansen project. We think the transaction underlines BHPs interest in Potash. We also believe that the transaction makes sound strategic sense; BHP is (once again) consolidating a mineral district to eventually benefit from economies of scale and synergies from optimising contiguous assets.
No big deal for BHP this time. We think this acquisition needs to be taken in context. US$320 mn for a US$190 bn market cap company is a rounding error. Will it impact BHPs ability to pay a dividend or buy back shares? Absolutely not. In our opinion, one of the biggest problems facing BHP is how to redeploy the strong cashflows from its tier one asset base and how to gear up an almost completely unlevered balance sheet. We believe that large scale M&A is one path to this end. We have previously written research contemplating a merger between BHP & POT for example.
We are bullish and thus prefer more geared names. Recent market gyrations notwithstanding, we are bullish on the global economic outlook. BHP has world class assets and a best in class balance sheet. As a less operationally and financially geared player, we think that BHP is unlikely to outperform the wider sector in a period of rising commodity prices. We estimate BHP is trading on 13x 2010E CY earnings, 10x CY2011E earnings."

PERTH, March 1 (Reuters) - BHP Billiton Ltd, Australia's largest oil and gas producer, has started oil production on schedule from its A$1.7 billion ($1.07 billion) Pyrenees project, off western Australia, it said on Monday.

Following are some facts about the Pyrenees project:

* The Pyrenees project comprises the Crosby, Ravensworth and Stickle fields, which were discovered in the WA-12-R permit off Western Australia in July 2003 and have total estimated recoverable oil reserves of between 80-120 million barrels.

* The project, approved for development in 2007, will produce 96,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil at its peak, processed through a floating production storage and offtake vessel. It has an estimated production life of 25 years.

* Pyrenees is the second project operated by BHP, after the Stybarrow field, to start production from the Carnarvon Basin off Western Australia since 2007.

* BHP said in January it is on target for 10 percent annual growth in petroleum output this year. The firm's petroleum output in the first half rose 17 percent to 79.6 million barrels of oil equivalent.

* The project will add to Australia's new heavy and sweet oil stream. Pyrenees crude is heavy with an American Petroleum Index of 18 and a sulphur content of 0.30 percent.

Broker nore from Liberum:
"BHP Billiton has reported slightly weaker 3Q10 production numbers, with oil, thermal coal and manganese the main performers in our view. Like Rio, Australian based operations suffered from weather related disruptions and whilst headline iron ore appears strong at +11% YoY this compares to Rio last week reporting iron ore +41% YoY. Weaker production in base metals are mainly due to well flagged operational issues at Olympic Dam therefore should come as no surprise. BHP is undoubtedly cheap; on spot prices it is trading at 5.9x PER 2011 and 3.1x EV / EBITDA 2011, but we continue to prefer cheaper Rio (4.3x PER 2011 and 2.0x EV / EBITDA) which we believe comes with lower downside risk if regulators block the proposed BHP / Rio iron ore JV."

hali and i got to discussing BLT on the RKH thread a little earlier.
hali made the very good point that BLT is the only major company that currently has a presence through its holding in FOGL - imo, a questionable investment, but no matter.

anyway, for those interested, herebelow a 3 month chart - it's really not very pretty with 200 dma firmly broken and 25 dma now being challenged

StockMarketWire.com
BHP Billiton is taking a $3.29bn hit on its US shale gas and Australian nickel assets following a full-year assessment.

The company said low US gas prices due to a short term over supply of gas have resulted in an impairment of $2.84bn (before tax) against the carrying value of the Fayetteville shale gas assets acquired from Chesapeake Energy in February 2011.

The company will also recognise a $450m (before tax) charge against the carrying value of its Nickel West assets as a result of margin deterioration.

Both impairments will be recognised as exceptional items.

Chief executive Marius Kloppers and head of petroleum Mike Yeager will forgo their bonuses for 2012 following the impairments.

Kloppers said: "Our decision to enter the North American shale hydrocarbon business about 18 months ago was taken after extensive deliberation and due diligence.

"Our work convinced us that this significant, low-carbon fuel source would play a meaningful role as the world makes its future energy choices.

"We are still of this view, particularly given the ongoing positive technological advancements in the shale industry.

"We believe that our dry gas assets are well positioned for the future given their competitive position on the industry cost curve. In the short term, the accelerated development of our liquids rich shales will continue to complement investment in our traditional project pipeline given the high rates of return on offer and the rapid payback on incremental investment."

Results Year Ended 30 June 2012

· Our strategy to own and operate large, long-life, low-cost, expandable, upstream assets diversified by commodity, geography and market remains a major point of differentiation, particularly in the current, more challenging economic environment.

· Underlying EBIT(1)(2) decreased by 15% to US$27.2 billion and Attributable profit excluding exceptional items(3) declined by 21% to US$17.1 billion. Exceptional items totalling US$1.7 billion contributed to a 35% decline in Attributable profit to US$15.4 billion.

· Underlying EBIT margin(3) remained at a robust 39% while Underlying return on capital was 23%.

· Strong momentum established with annual production records achieved at 10 operations. Our low risk, largely brownfield projects in execution are expected to create substantial shareholder value.

· Net operating cash flow(4) of US$24.4 billion reflected the strong cash generating capacity of the business throughout the economic cycle. Gearing of 26% remains within the parameters defined by our solid A credit rating.

· An 11% increase in the 2012 financial year dividend takes the compound annual growth rate of our progressive dividend to 26% over the last 10 years.

Note from Merrill Lynch today:
"We downgrade BHP to Underperform from Neutral, with a new price objective of GBp1900 (-16%). Post the recent share price rally, we believe BHP is expensive, both relative to its own historical valuation range, and relative to the other diversified miners (10% premium on PER, 30% premium on P/NPV). This valuation suggests that BHP is over-owned and we believe many investors currently favour BHP, as it is seen as safe, high quality and a quasi-oil stock. BHP will, in our view, underperform in a continuing sector rally, whilst also being exposed on the downside in the event that iron ore/oil prices roll over. Post the recent strength in iron ore prices, the BHP share price is up +30% off its 2012 lows and trading toward the top of its recent trading range. On P/NPV, the current multiple of 1.25x is also toward the top end of historical ranges.
Despite its valuation premium, BHP currently has the least volume growth of the big diversified miners (chart 2). We see the group as struggling to grow. The recent record of capital allocation at BHP has been patchy, in our view, with the group taking some write-downs in its recently acquired Shale Gas assets. As discussed in our November “Big Miners” report, we see further write-down risks in businesses such as Alumina and Nickel. Absent growth, we think the stock also looks expensive on a dividend yield basis vs. big oil companies (3.4% 2013 DY vs. average 5.1% for oil majors)."