9:16am: Seven West Media has posted a loss of $109.3 million for the first half of the financial year because of restructure costs and the lower value of its magazines.
Seven West, the owner of the Seven Network and West Australian newspaper group, took charges of more than $255 million in the six months to December 31 relating to redundancies and writedowns on its magazines and investment in Yahoo!7.
The loss compares to a $163 million net profit in the previous corresponding period. Earnings before significant items, net finance costs and tax (EBIT) in the six months to December was $259.3 million, above its previous guidance of $250 million.
‘‘Good progress is being made on driving greater efficiencies across our business to manage our costs,’’ chief executive Don Voelte said in a statement.
‘‘These initiatives will assist in our performance in the second half of 2012/13 and in 2013/14.’’
9:11am: The full story on Kloppers in here. We're building it out as news comes to hand. There's a press conference in Sydney 10am.
9:10am: The reviews of the BHP news and result are starting to flow in:
9:04am: In other earnings news today, Suncorp Group announced its first half profit has grown by 48 per cent due to lower insurance claims and stronger financial markets in the six months to the end of December.
The financial company said the cost of claims from floods and bushfires since the end of December total up to $417 million, which is still below its allowance of $520 million for the full 2012/13 financial year.
Suncorp made a net profit of $574 million in the six months to December 31, up from $389 million in the previous corresponding period.
Revenue in the six months to December of $8.2 billion was up 1.4 per cent from $8.1 billion in the same period the previous year.
‘‘While this result does reflect more benign weather conditions and improved investment markets, our business is in good shape,’’ chief executive Patrick Snowball said in a statement.
Suncorp declared an interim dividend of 25 cents per share, 80 per cent franked, up from 20 cents at the same time the previous year.
9:03am: Here's a chart showing the relative performance of BHP, RIO and ASX200 since Kloppers won the top job in October 2007.
He's outperformed Rio by more than 2 per cent despite giving his rival a handy head start, and he finds himself level-pegging with the ASX where things stand today. In case it's difficult to read, BHP is the white line, Rio the orange one and the ASX200 is in yellow.
Share performance - BHP versus RIO on the ASX200 since Kloppers took over in October 2007. Photo: Bloomberg
8:53am: BHP raised its interim dividend by 3.6 per cent to 57 cents, also in line with analysts' forecasts.
8:50am: Some more on the BHP numbers.
Net income was $4.2 billion in the six months ended Dec. 31, from $9.9 billion a year ago, the Melbourne-based company said today in a statement.
BHP joins rivals Rio Tinto and Anglo American in reporting a drop in earnings as waning global growth last year prompted lower prices and some global miners to slow expansion.
BHP Chief Executive Officer Marius Kloppers sold $4.3 billion of assets in the half and put about $68 billion of projects on hold.
‘‘The impacts of a volatile environment on commodity prices is plain to see,’’ Royal Bank of Canada analysts Des Kilalea and Timothy Huff said in a report before the results.
8:48am: The Kloppers announcement comes as BHP reported a 58 per cent fall in first half profit to $US4.24 billion ($A4.14 billion) due to lower commodity prices and a weak US dollar.
8:42am: Some more from BHP chairman Jac Nasser on Kloppers' replacement, Andrew Mackenzie:
"In succeeding Marius, Andrew brings a unique combination of deep industry knowledge and global management experience to the CEO role. Andrew held senior positions in BP and Rio Tinto before joining BHP Billiton in 2008. He has led our Non-Ferrous division for the last five years working across four continents with responsibility for over half of our 100,000 people.
“Our succession planning process has served the company well for over a decade. Today’s announcement is a result of that planned and considered process.
“The Board has decided that Andrew is the right person to lead BHP Billiton in a changing global environment.”
8:36am: More from the BHP press release:
In making the announcement BHP Billiton Chairman Jac Nasser acknowledged the outstanding contribution Marius Kloppers has made to the growth of BHP Billiton:
"Marius was appointed Chief Executive just prior to the global financial crisis. Despite an exceptionally difficult economic environment during his tenure, Marius and his team have delivered for shareholders, significantly outperforming our peers in terms of total shareholder returns.
"He drove new investments into next generation opportunities including US onshore gas and liquids and created one of the most valuable companies in the world. He leaves BHP Billiton a safer and stronger company."
CEO of BHP Billiton, Marius Kloppers on a panel of speakers at Creating Shared Value in Melbourne. Photo: Arsineh Houspian
8:34am: From the BHP press release:
The Board of BHP Billiton today announced that Marius Kloppers will retire as Chief Executive Officer and a Director of the company on 10 May 2013 and that Andrew Mackenzie, will succeed him and join the Board on that date. Marius will retire from the Group on 1 October 2013.
Andrew, 56, is BHP Billiton’s Chief Executive Non-Ferrous. He has over thirty years experience in oil and gas, petrochemicals and minerals. He joined BHP Billiton in November 2008. Andrew has a doctorate in Chemistry and a first-class degree in Geology.
8:31am: BREAKING NEWS Marius Kloppers is stepping down from the leadership of BHP. More shortly.
8:23am: The Aussie dollar has risen following yesterday's release of the minutes of the February RBA rates meeting, which showed the central bank is relaxed about the current level of interest rates and are not likely to cut again in the next couple of months, barring the emergence any fresh economic stability.
The Aussie is a quarter of a US cent higher, trading at $US1.0358, up from $US1.0329. Since 5pm yesterday it has traded between $US1.0301 and $US1.0370.
HiFX senior trader Stuart Ive said figures showing German economic sentiment in February hit its highest level since April 2010 gave markets a cause for optimism.
‘‘Overnight, there was a bullish tone, the Dow Jones Index was up,’’ he said from Auckland.
‘‘There’s still a two-tiered economy going on in Europe, you’ve got Germany pounding away and you’ve got France and others struggling.
‘‘It gives us the impression that the global economies are beating a path to growth again, even though we have some signs of weakness, especially in Europe.’’
8:06am: Meanwhile in the US, stocks rose modestly, but hacking news seemed to dominate the headlines, with the US and China locking horns over reports that cyber attacks on major US companies had been traced back to a non-descript, 12-story building on the outskirts of Shanghai, where China's army was believed to be in charge of hundreds if not thousands of hackers.
In a 74-page report, US form Mandiant said that the hacking group "APT1" -- from the initials "Advanced Persistent Threat" -- was believed to be a branch of what is known as Unit 61398 of the People's Liberation Army.
"We believe that APT1 is able to wage such a long-running and extensive cyber espionage campaign in large part because it receives direct government support," Mandiant said.
US officials voiced concern about the charges in the report but were cautious. White House spokesman Jay Carney said that US officials "regularly raise this issue with Chinese officials, including officials in the military."
Apple, meanwhile, revealed that it was hit by hackers who wormed their way into the California company's system but evidently failed to steal any data.
The maker of iPhones, iPads, iPods, and Macintosh computers said it is working with law enforcement officials to hunt down the hackers, who appeared tied to a series of recent cyber attacks on US technology firms.
"The malware was employed in an attack against Apple and other companies, and was spread through a website for software developers," Apple said in an email response to an inquiry from AFP.
8:05am: European stocks gained strongly overnight on soaring investor sentiment in eurozone powerhouse Germany.
The widely watched investor confidence index calculated by the ZEW economic institute soared to 48.2 points in February from 31.5 points in January. That was its highest level since April 2010.
CMC Markets Analyst Michael Hewson said: "Europe's markets have been given a timely lift from the latest German ZEW data for February which came in at a three year high as German investors continued to become more confident about the likelihood of a bounce back in the German economy..."
The reading beat market expectations for a much more modest increase to just 35 points this month, stoking hopes that the eurozone could edge towards economic recovery this year.
8:03am: Today is one of the big ones for this earning season, with mining giant BHP due to report at 8.30am. Stay tuned for full coverage of all the major earnings news and follow up analysis. Here’s a quick look at the major companies reporting today:
- First half earnings: BHP Billiton, Seven West Media, Fortescue Metals Group, Kingsgate Consolidated, Suncorp Group, APA Group, Toll Holdings, Ridley Corporation, Skilled Group, GWA Group, Super Retail Group, Aurizon, Retail Food Group
- Woodside Petroleum full year results
- Aristocrat Leisure annual general meeting
- Sydney Airport January Traffic Results
- SEEK interim results
- SMS Management & Technology interim results
8:02am: For a comprehensive look at this morning’s business news, check today’s need2know. Here are this morning’s key markets numbers:
- SPI futures are 13 points higher at 5073
- The $A is higher at $US1.0359
- In recent trade in New York, the S&P500 was 0.608% higher at 1529.04
- In London, the FTSE100 rose 0.964% to 6379.07
- China iron ore is higher at $US158.00 a metric tonne
- Gold fell 60 cents to $US1604.60 an ounce
- WTI crude oil rose 56 cents to $US96.42 a barrel
- Reuters/Jefferies CRB index fell 0.2% to 298.40
8:02am: Good morning folks. Welcome to the Markets Live blog for Wednesday.
Contributors: Thomas Hunter, Jens Meyer, Max Mason
This blog is not intended as investment advice
BusinessDay with agencies
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