RIO Rio Tinto Limited

   By Robb M. Stewart 
 

MELBOURNE, Australia--Rio Tinto PLC (RIO.AU) said it would buy back a further US$1 billion in shares, after the mining company continued to reduce at debt and its profit jumped in the first half of the year.

The mining company saidon Wednesday that it would return US$3 billion in cash to shareholders, including a higher dividend payout and the purchase of its London-listed shares by the end of the year. Rio Tinto said the capital management was in addition to a US$500 million share buyback that began earlier this year.

Net profit rose to US$3.31 billion in the six months through June from US$1.71 billion a year earlier.

That was despite production of iron ore and steel-making coking coal struggling over the first half with disruptive wet weather and rail maintenance in Australia, prompting Rio Tinto to scale back its production targets for both for the full year. Mined copper output, however, started to rebound in the second quarter from a lengthy strike at a mine in Chile, while thermal-coal production grew for the half year.

The Anglo-Australian company said its net debt was cut by US$2 billion over the half year to US$7.6 billion. That took its gearing--a measure of a company's debt relative to equity--13% from 17% at the end of December.

"By driving performance, focusing on cash and allocating it with discipline we are delivering superior cash returns to our shareholders," Chief executive Jean-Sebastien Jacques said.

Write to Robb M. Stewart at robb.stewart@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 02, 2017 02:46 ET (06:46 GMT)

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