Results round-up

Although first-half revenue was lower for Antofagasta, the Chilean copper mining colossus improved earnings and kept its dividend flat thanks to some heavy cost cutting.

Revenues of $1.45bn in the six months to 30 June were down 18.5% compared to the last year's due to lower copper prices and production levels, which are expected to be weighted to the second half and towards the lower end of January's guidance.

Nevertheless, management slashed $124m of operating costs, almost a quarter of the total, and were rewarded by earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) edging 2.3% higher to $571.6m, beating analyst expectations that were on the other side of $500m.

Chief executive Iván Arriagada said: "Continued management actions to reduce costs and preserve cash contributed to our EBITDA margin strengthening to 39.5%, from 26.2% in the full year 2015. While reducing costs in absolute terms is important we are focused on achieving improved efficiencies in a sustainable manner to ensure long-term shareholder value."

Operating profit fell 3.4% to $293.8m, while earnings per share slipped 3.3% to 8.9 cents, which again was ahead of City forecasts of 5.4 cents.

Miner BHP Billiton reported a record loss in the year to the end of June as weaker commodity prices, writedowns and the dam disaster in Brazil took their toll.

The company posted a loss of $6.4bn from a profit of $1.91bn the year before. Analysts at UBS had been expecting a full-year loss of $6.8bn.

Excluding $7.7bn of writedowns and charges, underlying profit was down 81% from 2015 to $1.2bn.

BHP declared a final dividend of 14 cents per share, which was 77% lower than the previous year’s 62 cents. This brought the full year dividend to 30 cents per share, which is down 76% from the year before.

Still, Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Nicholas Hyett said this is 75% ahead of what is implied by the group’s newly-adopted dividend policy of paying out 50% of underlying attributable profit.

Chief executive officer Andrew Mackenzie said: "The last 12 months have been challenging for both BHP Billiton and the resources industry. Nevertheless, our results demonstrate the resilience of our portfolio and the diverse ways in which we can create value for shareholders despite low commodity prices.