13 after the merger of BHP Billiton and BHP Billiton, Alcoa, the target that BHP Billiton tried to catch up with, has lost its dominance in the latest mining map. More interestingly, BHP Billiton, which once made BHP Billiton, will now be abandoned by it.
On June 12, according to the Financial Times, "BHP Billiton is currently considering selling almost all BHP Billiton's business and adjusting its business focus to focus on its core business before the merger in 20001year."
According to foreign media data, the contribution of many assets from BHP Billiton to BHP Billiton's profit has been declining: from about 30% at the time of merger to about 10% today. At the same time, "in the first six months of the current fiscal year, the capital expenditure invested in Billiton assets before the merger was less than 9% of the total capital expenditure of the Group".
In this regard, the Financial Times bluntly said that in contrast, a series of assets previously owned by BHP Billiton "became insignificant" to the profits of Anglo-Australian Group, including manganese ore and aluminum production facilities in Africa, "because BHP Billiton's profits from aluminum business were eroded by China's increasing aluminum production".
"Indeed, with so many metal varieties, the current investment return of aluminum and manganese is not high, and they all belong to the type of meager profit." On the evening of June 16, Hu Yanping, an analyst at Castel, analyzed the reporter of International Finance News. "From this perspective, we can understand the reasons for the rumors of the sale of Billiton Mining."
Taking the aluminum industry as an example, aluminum enterprises all over the world, including Chinalco and Rusal, have suffered from the "pain" brought by the aluminum industry in recent years. Compared with similar companies, Rio Tinto even wrote down more than $65.438+0 billion for its subsidiary Alcan in 2065.438+02, which became one of the important reasons why CEO Ai Bonian was "fired" at that time.
"The merger of BHP Billiton and BHP Billiton is not a bad deal. Only some of the assets acquired at that time have no development potential in the next two or three decades. " Tim Huff, capital market analyst at Royal Bank of Canada, said.
Green Lockcock, head of resource research at UBS in Sydney, also told foreign media: "Only time will tell us whether they have the ability and how to quit. But now it seems that most of BHP Billiton's assets are destined not to stay in BHP Billiton. "
In response to market speculation, as of press time, BHP Billiton did not respond to the reporter's interview request. At the same time, BHP Billiton's English official website has not released any news related to BHP Billiton Mining.
Informed sources analyzed the reporter of International Finance News, and combined with the asset composition and current development trend of BHP Billiton Mining, BHP Billiton may not sell all the assets of BHP Billiton.
"The reason why there are market rumors is related to BHP Billiton's series of actions since last year." The above-mentioned insiders believe that "unlike previous years, BHP Billiton's investment efficiency is higher, making the asset structure more in line with the company's future development trend."
Adjustment strategy
In the eyes of the above-mentioned insiders, the emergence of rumors is not unexpected. "You can compare a series of recent market news horizontally, and you will find that BHP Billiton has been dealing with some non-core assets for a long time."
In fact, in the financial report issued by BHP Billiton to the reporter of International Finance News in June last year, the company's capital expenditure and exploration expenses decreased by 25% in fiscal year 20 14 to1600 million US dollars.
At present, despite the rumors of BHP Billiton, BHP Billiton is indeed stepping on the "rhythm" of improving efficiency. Taking coal assets as an example, it is reported that BHP Billiton said on June 1 1 that it wanted to "reduce operating costs when coal prices plummeted" and terminated a mining service contract. BHP Billiton and its partner Mitsubishi Development Corporation (a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Corporation) said that they had cancelled the service contract with Downer EDI, a mining service provider, in Goonyella Riverside mining area in Queensland.
"We may reduce production further." BHP Billiton hinted that the company is continuing to evaluate all its coal mining operations to ensure that it will not cause losses. According to foreign media statistics, the prices of hot coal and coking coal have fallen sharply to near the low point in five years.
Earlier, BHP Billiton admitted that they "will seek to sell coal assets and close high-cost mines".
Not just coal. BHP Billiton also expressed the news of selling nickel ore in Western Australia in mid-May this year. Deutsche Bank valued the asset at $459 million.