13th Feb 2014 07:30
LONDON (Alliance News) - Rio Tinto PLC Thursday said it swung to a pretax profit, increased underlying earnings 10% and will raise its dividend for the full-year 2013.
The Anglo-Australian mining giant said its profit before tax for the year reached USD3.51 billion for the twelve months ended December 31, compared from a loss of USD2.43 billion a year ago.
The company posted an annual net profit attributable to owners of the company of USD3.665 billion, compared to a net loss of USD3.028 billion last year. Earnings per share totalled 197.3 cents, compared to last year's loss per share 163.8 cents.
The results for the year 2013 included non-cash exchange losses of USD2.9 billion and impairments of USD3.4 billion.
Underlying earnings grew 10% to USD10.2 billion, and the company exceeded its cost-cutting expectations, with net operating costs falling to USD36.10 billion from USD37.53 billion.
For the year 2013, consolidated sales revenues rose slightly to USD51.171 billion from USD50.942 billion the previous year as cost reduction initiatives and higher volumes kicked in.
In addition, the group announced 15% increase in full-year dividend to 192 cents per share from 167 cents, payable on April 10 to shareholders on record on March 7.
In January, the company said it increased production for iron ore and other metals during the year, achieving record shipment numbers.
For 2014, the group had said in January it expects to produce about 295 million tonnes from its global operations in Australia and Canada, subject to weather constraints.
Rio Tinto also had said that exploration and evaluation expenditure was reduced by more than USD1 billion in 2013 compared with 2012, exceeding the USD750 million target set for the year.
By Tom McIvor; [email protected]; @TomMcIvor1
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