BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP.AU) Chief Financial Officer Alex Vanselow said Sunday that the miner's balance sheet can be leveraged up if the right acquisition target comes along.

BHP's net leverage is currently around 12%. Vanselow said that could probably be pushed out to around 35% to 40% while maintaining BHP's solid A-grade credit rating.

Even without considering any further acquisitions, that leverage will move a bit higher in the coming year as BHP faces a heavy investment and dividend return bill, Vanselow told Australian Broadcasting Corp.'s "Inside Business" program.

The miner is due to pay A$6 billion for its joint venture with rival miner Rio Tinto Ltd. (RTP) in the Pilbara region in early 2010. Its dividend bill is close to A$4.6 billion a year at current levels, and it is looking to invest another A$10 billion this year in growing its own assets organically, he said.

Vanselow reiterated that BHP's relationship with China hasn't been affected as a result of the arrest of four Rio Tinto executives on allegations of bribery and infringing trade secrets in relation to iron-ore negotiations. "Nothing has changed for us. We continue to sell into China and we're committed to our customers," Vanselow said. He did say, however, that BHP is monitoring the Rio Tinto situation closely, although the facts of the case so far are scarce.

BHP has been pushing for some time for more transparent pricing of iron ore, moving away from benchmark pricing to BHP's preferred indexed pricing mechanism, in line with other commodities such as copper.

-By Rachel Pannett, Dow Jones Newswires; 61-2-6208-0901; rachel.pannett@dowjones.com