Financial strength and discipline
- Robin Bordie
Economist, China - Robin Bordie has been working with BHP Billiton since 2004. She has extensive experience in econometrics and economics research, and an in-depth understanding of the Chinese economy and the developmental issues relating to China’s growth. With more than 20 years’ professional work experience, Robin brings to us the invaluable ability to analyse the complex economic situation and rapid changes in China – our largest single-country market.
Diversified across products, markets and regions, our asset base provides relatively stable cash flows regardless of variations and risks in areas such as commodity prices, currency exchange rates and geopolitical conditions. This affords us the certainty to fund our long-term business plan, the ability to develop projects to meet demand and the scope to make opportunistic and counter-cyclical investments. It is a foundation further strengthened by our strong ‘A’ credit rating and the low-cost position of our asset portfolio.
Our investment approvals process targets investments that are aligned with our own values, priorities, strategies and policies. Investments must have a high probability of success and must be capable of achieving optimal shareholder value with an acceptable degree of risk. Our goal is to invest in opportunities that achieve returns in excess of the cost of capital.
Our capital management priorities are to reinvest in projects with attractive rates of return, ensure a solid balance sheet, and return capital to shareholders. We maintained our progressive dividend policy with an increase of 29 per cent over the previous financial year, bringing the 2006 dividend payment to 36 cents per share. We announced a further return to shareholders of US$5.0 billion through a combination of off and on-market share buy-backs.