The world's biggest miner, BHP Billiton Limited (ASX: BHP), with a market cap of more than $200 billion, recently reported a profit of US$7.8 billion for the six months to December 2013.
That's a whopping 31% rise over the previous year.
What you may not know is that including that profit figure, BHP has reported a total net profit of more than A$140 billion since 1985.
Here's another 9 facts you may not know.
- That net profit comes from revenues of over $820 billion over the same period.
- BHP has paid taxes of around $76 billion on those revenues.
- While BHP and Billiton only merged in 2001 to form the company we know now, Billiton's history stretches back as far as 1860, while BHP's life began in 1885.
- Arrium (ASX: ARI) ex-OneSteel and BlueScope Steel (ASX: BSL) were both part of BHP, but were spun out in 2000 and 2002 respectively.
- BHP made a $66 billion dollar takeover offer for Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO) in 2007, but the bid was dropped in 2008 due to the global financial crisis.
- BHP made a US$40 billion bid for Canadian miner Potash Corporation in 2010, but the deal was knocked back by the Canadian government.
- BHP's 2014 financial year petroleum production will be around three times that of Australia's largest independent oil and gas producer, Woodside Petroleum (ASX: WPL), in 2013.
- BHP was almost taken over in 1985, by entrepreneur Robert Holmes à Court, but was saved through a deal with Elders IXL. Robert's son Peter is a part owner in NRL team South Sydney Rabbitohs, along side Russell Crowe.
- Shares in BHP first traded around $38 to $39 in Jul 2007.
- And a bonus fact – the BHP Billiton logo represents a larger 'blob' (BHP) merging with a smaller 'blob' (Billiton) to form a perfectly whole new entity. It reportedly cost $800,000 to design.
