BHP H1 Profit Climbs, Dividend Flat; Sees Broadly Flat FY19 Production

(RTTNews) - BHP (BHP.AX, BLT.L, BBL, BHP) reported Tuesday that its attributable profit for the half year ended December 31, 2018 climbed 87 percent to $3.76 billion from last year's 2.02 billion.

Basic earnings per share were 71.0 cents, up 87 percent from 37.9 cents last year.

Underlying attributable profit was $3.73 billion, compared to $4.05 billion a year ago. Underlying basic earnings per share were 70.4 cents, compared to 76.1 cents last year.

Underlying attributable profit from continuing operations was $4.03 billion, compared to $4.40 billion a year ago.

Total revenue was flat at $21.59 billion.

The company announced interim dividend per share of 55 cents, same as last year.

Looking ahead, productivity is now expected to be broadly flat for the 2019 financial year largely reflecting the unplanned production outages at Olympic Dam, Western Australia Iron Ore, Spence and Nickel West.