BHP half-year profit beats expectations, inflation impact recedes

BHP Group on Tuesday logged first-half underlying profit that slightly beat analyst expectations, buoyed by strong iron ore prices, and said inflationary impacts were receding.

The world's largest listed miner was cautiously optimistic on a demand recovery in the developed world in the next 12 months but said it was not yet clear how effective stimulus policies have been in China, its biggest customer.

It was more bullish on India, which it said "has considerable positive momentum behind it."

BHP said it expects a "more balanced global economy and evidence that the worst of the general inflationary wave is behind us will have a positive impact on our industry in calendar year 2024."

For the first-half, BHP's strong revenue growth of 6% was underpinned by higher iron ore and copper prices and contributions from new projects, but was partially offset by lower energy coal prices.

BHP said underlying profit attributable to shareholders was $6.60 billion for the six months ended Dec. 31, unchanged from the previous year, but topping an LSEG estimate of $6.42 billion.

It declared an interim dividend of $0.72 per share, compared with $0.90 per share a year earlier. That beat Citi's expectation of $0.68, and a Visible Alpha consensus of $0.70.

"(The) market should take a modestly higher dividend than expected as a reflection of BHP's improving confidence regarding (the) outlook on commodity demand/prices," analysts at Citi wrote.

Shares in BHP edged down 0.3% to A$45.91 amid a sour tone in resources stocks.

BHP, which announced a $2.5 billion impairment charge for its Western Australia Nickel business last week, said it sees the nickel industry facing "a difficult multi-year run," amid a flood of new supply coming out of Indonesia.

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