BHP reportedly likely to record a record loss of US$6.8 billion

August 12, 2016

BHP Billiton Ltd could be on track to report its largest corporate loss since it was created in a merger in 2001, and possibly the biggest reported loss for BHP since its inception, says UBS. The broker has been reported to forecast a net loss of US$6.80 billion when the miner reports its annual earnings next week, versus a profit of US$1.91 billion a year earlier. BHP has already flagged multibillion-dollar charges linked to its Samarco venture, redundancies and its U.S. energy unit, among other things, and UBS thinks it could record further write-downs against its U.S. onshore petroleum business “given the continued deterioration on the futures curve for oil.”