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BHP is big, but it is also the sum of its parts. Major resource projects often take between five and 10 years to develop, with investment costs running into billions of dollars. For oil projects the investment spend can be tens of billions of dollars.
The company operates in nearly every continent, digging up ore and coal, mining copper and pumping out oil. Just a third of its earnings come from Australia. Strip that out and BHP's operations here would be equivalent to that of the big four banks.
In the last six months BHP wasn't just affected by the devastating floods in Australia. It also had to contend with floods in South Africa, Columbia and Brazil.
''In some cases it is worse than we've had in Australia,'' Kloppers said yesterday.
While Treasury put the tax lost at $60 billion over the next decade from mining, BHP yesterday outlined an $80 billion investment plan over the next five years. Most of this will be spent expanding iron ore operations in Australia's north west.
Yesterday BHP also presented a smorgasbord of projects that it was thinking about, including expanding coal operations in the Illawarra, building out Newcastle ports. It intends to expand rail and ports in Queensland while boosting capacity at its Olympic Dam copper and uranium mine. It also emphasised its commitment to Bass Strait oil and gas fields.
BHP highlighted the long-term nature of its commitment to Australia - the Pilbara iron ore and Bowen Basin coal assets are expected to have a life of at least 50 years. The Olympic Dam copper and uranium mine has a shelf-life of more than 100 years, according to BHP.
For now Kloppers says BHP's strategy is clear: to boost value for shareholders by developing long-life growth assets that have high margins and high capital returns.
''(This) basically allows us to do three things simultaneously, which is to invest in the business, maintain the balance sheet and increase the amount of money to shareholders,'' Kloppers said.
Still, he is one of the few chief executives to be able to boast his company is operating in an environment that is ''particularly good''.
BUT Greens leader Bob Brown has called on governments to have more ''backbone'' when it comes to dealing with major companies like BHP. Brown described the big miner's latest profit as ''incredible''.
''Here's people with disabilities not getting proper services, we have no national dental care system, old age people are being cared for by good Australians on a pittance,'' he told reporters yesterday.
''There's not the funding there to do the right thing by them because BHP, Rio and other corporations are making massive profits.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard, on tour in New Zealand, said she was unwilling to change the design of the mineral resource rent tax, after the Greens called for the super tax to be reinstated in the wake of the huge profits and missed revenue.
''I've been consistent on this proposition and I've been asked on more than one occasion,'' Ms Gillard said.
Treasurer Wayne Swan also defended the MMRT, saying the super profits tax was too hard to pass through Parliament.
When talk of a super profit tax comes up in banking circles, the big four lenders turn the spotlight back on the resource sector.
Commonwealth Bank, which is on track for a record $6.8 billion profit this year, recently argued that its earnings are nowhere near on the scale of mining companies.
''When you consider that our return on equity places us at the bottom quartile of the ASX 100 companies, there would be another 25 companies ahead of us who are not banks that have higher relative returns,'' CBA chief executive Ralph Norris said during a briefing last week.
On one measure of profitability - return on assets - Norris points out that CBA makes a little over 1 per cent. That is, for every $100 of assets it has, CBA makes $1. By comparison BHP Billiton's return on assets is in excess of 37 per cent.
''(Our) business is a big business, it makes a big profit, but it is consistent with the size of the business,'' Norris said.
The CBA boss went a step further, calling for a Norwegian-style sovereign wealth fund to ensure Australia does not squander its windfall from the mining boom.
London has become a hub for global Saudi public relations and media influence campaigns, with British firms earning millions of pounds from efforts to improve the image of the kingdom and its regional allies in recent years, a Guardian investigation has found.
The reputation of Saudi Arabia, always controversial due to its record on human rights and involvement in the ongoing Yemeni war, has taken a battering in the past fortnight following the apparent murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Major PR agency Freud’s, which has worked with Saudi Arabia, is now distancing itself from the kingdom.
There are fresh concerns over the Independent’s decision to establish a partnership with a Saudi publisher with close links to the Saudi government.
The London office of online publisher Vice has been working on a series of films to promote Saudi Arabia.
A Saudi publishing company that is signing partnerships with western media firms has donated to the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change in return for his advice to the country.
A company largely staffed by former employees of the collapsed PR firm Bell Pottinger has advised the Saudi state on communications strategy.
Although some media companies have longstanding relationships with the country, many advertising and PR groups rushed into the kingdom during the rise to power of Mohammed bin Salman, who became crown prince in June 2017. His recent attempts to improve the country’s overseas image have been undermined by Khashoggi’s disappearance.
They include London PR company Consulum, largely staffed by former employees of Bell Pottinger, which has worked on communications programmes with the Saudi Arabian government. Partners at the firm include Ryan Coetzee, a former Nick Clegg adviser who was chief strategist for the remain campaign in the EU referendum. A spokesperson for the company said they were unable to comment on the current status of the work.
Freud’s, the company founded by Matthew Freud, provided PR support for the kingdom’s Vision 2030 relaunch under Bin Salman during 2016. A spokesman said this week it was not currently working for the government of Saudi Arabia.
According to sources, CT Group, a company founded by Conservative election strategist Lynton Crosby, has promoted articles by Qatari opposition leader Khalid Al-Hail to British publications.
Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut diplomatic and trade ties with Qatar in June 2017, accusing it of supporting terrorism and being too close to Riyadh’s arch rival, Iran – charges Doha denies.
CT Group did not respond to multiple requests for comment on whether it worked for Hail and whether it had any contracts with Saudi Arabia or its regional allies.
Other London PR businesses that confirmed they had undertaken work with the Saudi state in recent months include Pagefield Global Counsel, which said it no longer worked with the country. Milltown Partners, a business run by Prince Charles’ former head of communications and a former New Labour aide, said it did not currently have any contracts in the region but would not confirm whether it had worked with the Saudi state on projects in the past two years. Kekst CNC, a division of French PR company Publicis with offices in London, said it had not worked with the Saudis since the start of the year.
Advertising firm WPP declined to comment when asked whether it was concerned about the situation in the region or whether it had ongoing contracts with the Saudi state.
Sources at Vice said the company had a team working on material to promote Saudi Arabia in conjunction with the Saudi publishing group SRMG, which has close ties to the Saudi ministry of information. Bin Salman met the Vice founder Shane Smith earlier this year on his tour of the US.
One video produced by Vice as part of the deal promoted tourism to a Saudi Arabian camel festival, has attracted millions of views on Vice’s YouTube channel. A single frame at the end of the 15-minute film states the video was “produced in partnership” with SRMG. Vice said it retained full editorial control over the material but that the deal was now under review.
In March this year, a number of British newspapers, including the Guardian, ran adverts promoting Bin Salman’s reform agenda.
SRMG, whose former chairman recently became the Saudi minister of culture with responsibility for promoting the Saudi modernisation programme, is often perceived as a vehicle for Saudi soft power in the UK. In addition to its publishing interests, it donates to the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change to support the former British prime minister’s work on the Saudi modernisation programme. The institute declined to comment.
SRMG has already signed a deal with the Independent to launch new foreign language websites under the Independent brand across the Middle East by the end of this year, with all staff hired by the Saudi publisher. However, individuals approached to ensure the sites meet the Independent’s standards have expressed concern over potential editorial interference by the Saudi publisher.
Another major UK newspaper, the Telegraph, declined to comment on speculation that it had been approached by a potential Saudi purchaser earlier this year, with a spokesperson insisting the newspaper was not for sale and questions about any approach were “for the Saudis” to answer.
Lina Khatib, the head of the Middle East and north Africa programme at the Chatham House thinktank, said the kingdom had embarked on “wide-ranging PR campaign focused on the UK and the US” over the past two years since the arrival of the new crown prince.
She said the country had chosen to invest in English-language content targeting a domestic British audience, aided by the support of Theresa May’s government, which “gave Saudi Arabia a sense of having the upper hand in this relationship” and the UK’s continued armed sales to Saudi Arabia during the war in Yemen.
“With Brexit looming, Saudi Arabia saw an opportunity to increase the UK’s trade and investment relationship with the Saudi kingdom as the UK began to seek alternatives to the European single market,” said Khatib.
The Saudi efforts have extended to Westminster. Dozens of Labour and Conservative MPs have received free trips worth more than £200,000 to Saudi Arabia in the past three years, with a typical all-expenses trip costing more than £8,000. The country is also famed for sending dozens of hampers to ministers and friendly MPs.
Conservative MP Rehman Chrisiti received £46,000 to provide advice to the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies over a period of two years until he resigned the position in January.
Market Rasen and Louth RFC will be hoping the winter break does not interfere with their momentum when they return to action on Saturday.
The First XV will play for the first time in three weeks when they entertain Melton Mowbray at Willingham Road (kick-off 2.15pm) as the Midlands One East season resumes.
The Red and Greens were enjoying a rich vein of form before the lengthy mid-season break, chalking up six wins in their last eight, a run which could have been even better had it not been for a one-point defeat at Wellingborough last time out.
The sequence has lifted them up to ninth in the table and just a bonus-point win behind fifth-placed Huntingdon.
To improve further they must avenge a heavy 27-5 defeat suffered in Leicestershire in the opening weeks of the campaign.
Yet Rasen will fancy their chances against Melton who have lost all six of their away trips this season - in contrast to a 100 per cent winning record at home.
Jim Nichols is CMO for SaaS partner management platform company Partnerize.
Over the course of my career, I have been at the center of four company rebrandings. By rebranding, I mean a soup-to-nuts rethink of everything from brand name to the honing of a central message. None have been “pivots,” but rather bringing sharp focus to what the company is all about.
Across those four rebrands, I have learned a lot and am frequently asked about key success factors for orchestrating these major events. If you are looking for tips and ideas for your rebrand, consider these eight bits of advice.
A rebrand involves much more work than you anticipate. It is only worth it if it will serve an affirmative business purpose.
Some people undertake a rebrand because they just don’t like their company names. In my view, that’s not a good reason. If your name is unclear, off-putting to the target or off strategy, those are better reasons to consider a rebrand. If your company is pivoting and the old name no longer works, that’s another good reason.
Before you decide if a rebrand makes sense, recognize that many people will be working on rebranding tasks when they could be doing other things -- for months and months.
Leaders set objectives for a rebrand and brand name and then evaluate name options by the extent to which they fulfill the preset objectives. Find a name that explains what you are about. It makes everything clear and simple, and it helps sellers when they are first connecting.
The most recent rebrand for me was for the company I currently work for. We changed our name from Performance Horizon to Partnerize to clearly communicate that we are a company all about partnership in all of its forms. When an investor suggested the new name, there was an instant consensus because it so perfectly fulfilled our strategic objectives. By contrast, I have also worked on a variety of rebrand projects where the objectives were not well set. The result was months of indecision and a final choice that fully satisfied no one because it wasn’t a strategic one.
You need to give people responsibility and authority to herd the kittens. Involve representatives from every department, and get them communicating with one another. What are the key projects? The dependencies? The things that are most likely to screw things up?
In our organization, we used a process from an outside project management agency that requires individuals responsible for projects to set the key dates so that they felt accountable for them. A weekly check-in gave them the opportunity to identify roadblocks in advance of deadlines. The tool we used turned tasks red when a project was late or if the person responsible had to renegotiate dates within two weeks of deadlines. It earned the nickname “the sheet of shame,” and it kept people focused on meeting their commitments and long-term planning.
A culture of responsibility enables a team to identify the key deliverables along with completion dates that make sense. The focus is on deliverables, not tasks. A good process enables the responsible person to manage the “how” as they wish while ensuring that the “what” is delivered on time.
Frequent check-ins can surface issues long before they affect timelines, and they bring up issues that might not have been considered before.
When big companies do things, the world notices. The rest need to recognize that a rebrand by itself is not newsworthy. Think about how you can bring news to rebranding. Is your rebrand driven by an upcoming major event? Did research help drive your decisions?
For the Partnerize rebrand, we debuted industry research on the meaning and importance of partnership and garnered significant press for the combined story.
A successful rebrand galvanizes employees. Look to your internal team for inspiration on how to take the concept to the next level.
At one company, we reserved some rebranding decisions to the collective viewpoint of the team, as measured in extensive surveys. At a more recent rebrand, we took a more organic approach that considered all ideas as they bubbled up.
Consider ideas from all corners, and respond with appreciation whether you accept them or not.
A great rebrand is exciting to your customers as well as your internal team. More importantly, the change shouldn’t mean a lot of extra work for them. Plan with their needs at the top of your mind.
At our company, for example, we left our application programming interfaces (APIs) at old online addresses even though they don’t match the rebrand, so that working with us would not require additional engineering time.
If you’re really, really lucky, 10% of your target will learn about your new brand on launch day. Launch day is only the first step in fulfilling your vision. The rebrand you adopt needs to guide how you conduct business from that day forward.
For our company, every aspect of our go-to-market approach is changing to reflect our focus. It’s guiding the business we pitch, how we redefine elements of our product and our roadmap for the future.
The more the rebranding gets reflected in your business, the more successful you will be.
Stream Neko Case's Fantastic New Single "Man"
Furnace Room Lullaby boasts cavalcade of guest artists.
'SpongeBob' soundtrack, Elton John also hitting stores Tuesday.
Clark is fined after guilty plea; Case gives Nashville her shirt and her back.
Alt-country singer and her band the Boyfriends kick off tour behind album Furnace Room Lullaby.
Sincere Furnace Room Lullaby proves former punk is a genuine country inheritor.
The six-day event features art shows, workshops and concerts by Sleater-Kinney, Bratmobile and others.
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Countrywide Financial Corp. reported a 33% drop in second-quarter net income on Tuesday and signaled that problems in the subprime mortgage market have spread to the highest-quality home loans.
"The story here is credit deterioration," Goldman Sachs analysts said in a research report Tuesday. "Countrywide continues to suffer by its disproportionate mortgage portfolio exposure to pay-option ARMs, prime home equity loans, and California," they said.
The warning pushed Countrywide shares down more than 7%, to their lowest level in almost two years. It also weighed on the broader stock market because investors have been waiting to see if credit problems in the subprime-mortgage sector would spill over into higher-rated, or "prime" home loans.
"The company incurred increased credit-related costs in the quarter, primarily related to its investments in prime home-equity loans," CEO Angelo Mozilo said in a press release detailing Countrywide's second-quarter financial results.
Mozilo said he expects the slowdown in the housing market to run until at least 2009.
"I say 2009 because my experience is that it just takes a long time to change, to turn a battleship around," he said.
He added, "based upon what I have seen in the past and the size of this market -- is that it's going to take 2007, the balance of this year, to get this thing to look like it is slowing down; 2008 to get it to slow down and stop; and 2009 to head in the other direction."
Countrywide's second-quarter net income fell 33% to $485 million, or 81 cents a share, down from $722 million, or $1.15 a share, earned a year earlier, on softening home prices.
Results were hurt by impairment charges totaling $417 million and a loan-loss provision of $292.9 million.
The Calabasas, Calif.-based mortgage banking company said revenue decreased 15% to $2.55 billion, down from $3 billion generated in the 2006 second quarter.
On average, analysts polled by Thomson Financial had been expecting earnings of 95 cents a share and revenue of $2.86 billion.
Countrywide CFC, +0.00% said it took second-quarter impairment charges of $388 million, or 40 cents a share, for securities it owns backed by prime home-equity loans.
Countrywide shares fell 7%, or, $2.37, to $31.69 during morning trading on Tuesday. The stock has lost a quarter of its value so far this year.
Countrywide said payments were at least 30 days late at the end of second quarter on 4.56% of prime home-equity loans serviced by the company, up from 1.77% a year earlier.
"The impairment charges on these residuals were attributable to accelerated increases in delinquency levels and increases in the estimates of future defaults and loss severities on the underlying loans," the company said.
Payments were late on 23.71% of subprime mortgage loans, up from 15.33% at the end of the same period in 2006.
Further dampening enthusiasm, Mozilo commented: "During the quarter, softening home prices continued to affect many areas of the country and delinquencies and defaults continued to rise across all mortgage product categories as a result."