Rio Tinto Lifts Share Buyback Plans as 1st Half Profit Jumps
02 August 2017 - 5:01PM
Dow Jones News
By Robb M. Stewart
MELBOURNE, Australia--Rio Tinto PLC (RIO.AU) said it would buy
back a further US$1 billion in shares, after the mining company
continued to reduce at debt and its profit jumped in the first half
of the year.
The mining company saidon Wednesday that it would return US$3
billion in cash to shareholders, including a higher dividend payout
and the purchase of its London-listed shares by the end of the
year. Rio Tinto said the capital management was in addition to a
US$500 million share buyback that began earlier this year.
Net profit rose to US$3.31 billion in the six months through
June from US$1.71 billion a year earlier.
That was despite production of iron ore and steel-making coking
coal struggling over the first half with disruptive wet weather and
rail maintenance in Australia, prompting Rio Tinto to scale back
its production targets for both for the full year. Mined copper
output, however, started to rebound in the second quarter from a
lengthy strike at a mine in Chile, while thermal-coal production
grew for the half year.
The Anglo-Australian company said its net debt was cut by US$2
billion over the half year to US$7.6 billion. That took its
gearing--a measure of a company's debt relative to equity--13% from
17% at the end of December.
"By driving performance, focusing on cash and allocating it with
discipline we are delivering superior cash returns to our
shareholders," Chief executive Jean-Sebastien Jacques said.
Write to Robb M. Stewart at robb.stewart@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 02, 2017 02:46 ET (06:46 GMT)
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