MELBOURNE, Aug 25 (Reuters) - BHP Billiton
BHP
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KEY POINTS
* H2 profit $6.77 billion vs $6.9 bln analysts' forecasts * FY dividend 87 cents vs 82 cents yr ago
COMMENTARY PETER ELSTON, STRATEGIST AT ABERDEEN ASSET MANAGEMENT ASIA
"Longer-term we don't really have a view on where commodity prices are going. The investment case for the stock is not really for commodity prices going up, it is more a volume story. The simple story of growth in large markets like China and India being likely to be strong for several decades is the simple (investment) case for BHP."
STEPHEN BARTROP, PORTFOLIO MANAGER, LIMESTREET CAPITAL
"It looks pretty well in line with consensus. Underlying cash flow for the year remains strong, the $17.9 billion is a serious amount of cash and I guess that was flagged by Marius (Kloppers) in the sense it underpinned their capacity to execute the Potash Corp deal. It is a bit of a cautious outlook which says there are some good areas and concerns elsewhere.
RIC RONGE, PORTFOLIO MANAGER, PENGANA CAPITAL
"The result was broadly within expectations. Outlook is cautious with optimism further out. I have to say it's probably a very welcome result with very little to worry about.
BHP could probably go up to close to A$200 a share [in its Potash Corp bid]... In the absence of another bidder for those assets, BHP is doing the right thing in the sense it's basically offered a price... and is waiting for a response."
JAMES WILSON, ANALYST, DJ CARMICHAEL
"I don't think the numbers are too much of a surprise to anybody -- the overall results are within a whisker of what most people were looking at.
"The big thing for me was the big turn around in revenue for their base metals division that reflects higher prices. Its a 47 percent increase in revenue.
"There's strength in their diversity and that's their safety -- it used to be iron ore and then petroleum and then base metals but these days it is all about iron ore and base metals.
MARK TAYLOR, SENIOR RESOURCES ANALYST, MORNINGSTAR
"The underlying result came in at $12.469 billion and we were going for $12.462 billion so it was basically spot on, in terms of expectations. Similarly with EPS. The dividend is a bit more, fractionally more, than we were going for. As for the makeup of the result, oil and gas were a bit better, aluminium and copper worse than expected, nickel a bit worse, and ... iron and coking coal were ahead, so that all balanced out."
"What a company's profit results are is not what's important but how much they're willing to pay for an asset. They would only pay (for Potash) what they think the asset is worth and not what they can afford. It demonstrates there's great cash-flow and the company's in great financial position but everybody already knew that so I don't think this changes anything for Potash."
(Reporting by Sydney/Melbourne bureau)