BHP Billiton: Elliott urges value-creation plan.

(CercleFinance.com) - In a letter Elliott urged mining giant BHP Billiton to unlock value and improve capital returns to shareholders, outlining a three-step plan.


The investment fund - which holds an economic interest of approximately 4.1% of BHP Billiton plc's issued share capital - first recommends unifying BHP's dual-listed company structure into a single Australian-headquartered and Australian tax resident listed company.

Elliott also suggests demerging and separately listing BHP's US petroleum business on the NYSE, for which the fund sees an indicated value of close to 22 billion dollars.

The third step would be the adoption of capital returns to shareholders, notably via buyback program, as according to Elliott, BHP is expected to generate around 31 billion dollars of excess cash flow over the next 5 years.

Elliott believes that the implementation of its "Value Unlock" plan could provide BHP shareholders with an increase in share value of up to 48.6% for Limited shareholders and 51% for PLC shareholders.

Listed in London, the BHP Billiton PLC ordinary shares are currently up 4.8% at 1,349 pence.


Copyright (c) 2017 CercleFinance.com. All rights reserved.