Rio Tinto Annual Net Profit Falls on Writedowns
February 26 2020 - 1:51AM
Dow Jones News
By David Winning
SYDNEY--Rio Tinto PLC said its annual net profit fell 41%,
reflecting writedowns of a major copper investment in Mongolia and
an Australian alumina refinery while gains on asset sales in 2018
weren't repeated.
The world's second-biggest miner by market value on Wednesday
reported a net profit of US$8.01 billion for 2019, down from a
profit of US$13.64 billion a year earlier. The result was dragged
down by US$1.7 billion of impairment charges, primarily against the
Oyu Tolgoi underground project in Mongolia and the Yarwun alumina
refinery in Australia. This compared with US$4.0 billion of gains
on asset sales in 2018, Rio Tinto said.
However, annual profit before one-off items was up 18% at
US$10.37 billion, beating consensus expectations for an underlying
profit of US$10.13 billion based on data compiled by FactSet. That
reflected a 37% rise, compared with a year earlier, in the price of
iron ore dug up at its operations in Australia's Pilbara region,
which more than offset a 3% drop in annual production of the
commodity.
Directors declared a final dividend of US$2.31 a share, taking
the company's full-year dividend to US$3.82 a share. Also, Rio
Tinto paid a special dividend worth US$0.61 per share in September.
For 2018, the miner paid ordinary dividends totaling US$3.07 a
share.
"Our world-class portfolio and strong balance sheet serve us
well in all market conditions, and are particularly valuable in the
current volatile environment," said Chief Executive Jean-Sébastien
Jacques. "We are closely monitoring the impact of the Covid-19
virus and are prepared for some short-term impacts, such as
supply-chain issues."
Write to David Winning at david.winning@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 26, 2020 01:36 ET (06:36 GMT)
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