BHP Billiton plc (BBL)

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BHP Billiton plc is the London corporate office for BHP Billiton Group. Though its shareholders differ from BHP Limited it shares direct control of the company with Australia based BHP Limited (board of directors and management however only a minority of them are appointed from BHP Billiton plc due to its smaller market value). The plc designation came from before the 2001 merger of BHP and Billiton when Billiton had its central office in London. BHP Billiton plc is listed on exchanges in London, USA and South Africa. BHP Billiton's market cap is about 20% smaller than its counterpart BHP Billiton.

The division, the British part of the enlarged company is the source of much of BHP Billiton's present coal, aluminum and titanium operations. The larger BHP contributed the oil, copper and diamond businesses.

Complete information on the company is at BHP Billiton Limited's article BHP Billiton

Brief company overview

pg.63 in'10 20F[1]	% share	2010	2009	2008
diamonds (mil ct)	80%	3.050	3.221	3.341
titanium '000 T	37.76%	434	654	643
nickel '000 T	100%	176.2	173.1	167.9
cobalt T	100%	100	1,400	1,700
iron ore (mil T)	85%	124.962	114.415	112.260
manganese mil T	44.4%-60%	6.124	4.475	6.575
meta coal Mt	24.6Mt50% 13Mt80-100%	37.381	36.416	35.183
energy coal Mt	100% (33%Colombia)	66.131	66.401	80.868

Even though BHP Billiton is by far the world's biggest resource company it has yet to develop and begin operating key assets (including the AUS$1.3 trillion Australian olympic dam deposit). Because of that the range of products it receives revenue from is not as diverse as it is for competitors like Rio Tinto; BHP has $133 billion worth of gold at olympic dam but in 2010 the company recorded no gold production (Rio Tinto produced 733,000 ounces of gold in fiscal 2010). For example iron ore, base metals, coal, petroleum and aluminum account for 85.2% of BHP Billiton's revenue but only 68.0% of assets.

Contents 1 Brief company overview 1.1 Production (revenue, ebit, assets) 2 Merger of BHP Limited and Billiton plc 2.1 Shareholders (June 2010) 3 References

Production (revenue, ebit, assets)

Despite production of some key products being down or flat for 2010 revenue was at a record high, the result of very strong commodity prices (with the exception of coal, for coal revenue was down 29.3% even though production (metallurgical and energy coal together) rose 0.7%). Rising prices also helped the bottom line; revenue was up 5.2% even though core expenses were down 13.9% (operating profit showed excellent results but earnings before taxes were pushed down; they were basically steady on the year).^[1]

Merger of BHP Limited and Billiton plc

The merger happened in May 2001 and formed the largest diversified resources company in the world. Though the combined company was to have its main headquarters in Melbourne, Australia the deal got more support from England's Billiton (91.5% compared to 88.2% from BHP). BHP workers showed up in the thousands to protest the deal citing potential job losses. At the time Australia was the most important region of operations for the combined company making up 37% of total assets and 52% of revenue (revenue includes other operations in Asia). For the first year revenue was around US$18.6 billion and ebit US$3.3 billion (that compares to US$52.8 billion in 2010 revenue and US$19.7 billion in ebit).^[2]

Shareholders (June 2010)

Australia and England are the main sources of investment with 97.87% (99.05% including New Zealand) of BHP Limited shares owned by Australians and 79.7% of BHP plc shares owned by people in England (97% of shares outside of England are owned in South Africa). 69% of BHP Limited is corporate owned while 99.36% of BHP plc is corporate owned.^[1]

References

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} BHP Billiton 2010 20 F Annual Report page 11, 245 (2010).
2. ↑ BHP shareholders say yes to Billiton merger (2001-05-20).