BUSINESS LIVE: BHP misses forecasts with rate hike warning

John Wood Group has boosted annual adjusted core earnings expectations after strong growth across the British oilfield services and engineering firm’s business units.

Separately, the company also announced that its chief financial officer, David Kemp, would retire but would remain in the role until a successor is named.

Ken Gilmartin, CEO, said:

‘When we announced our growth strategy in November last year, we set out a blueprint for Wood to realize his significant potential, and I am delighted that our results show the clear progress we are making.

“We have had a strong start to the year, delivering growth in revenue, EBITDA, headcount and our project pipeline, while fostering our inspirational culture, as evidenced by our higher Net Employee Promoter Score of history.

“Looking ahead, we are confident that our actions, the business model we have implemented, and the market growth opportunities we have aligned ourselves with, support the momentum we are building in our business. As such, we are increasing our full-year guidance on revenue and EBITDA.’

Watchdogs have approved the £54bn takeover of the VMware cloud storage business by chipmaker Broadcom.

The Competition and Markets Authority said the merger of the two US companies would not harm the UK computer market. It is the largest deal ever approved by the regulator.

The CMA said Broadcom could not use the deal to harm industry rivals or use the merger to spy on competitors using VMware software.

BHP Group’s profit missed forecasts in its latest fiscal year and the London-listed mining giant warned that higher interest rates will continue to hamper demand in the developed world in coming months.

The Anglo-Australian company’s underlying attributable profit for the year ended June 30 fell to $13.42bn from $21.32bn a year earlier, below forecasts of $13.89bn.

BHP declared a final dividend of $0.80 per share, up from $1.75 per share a year ago, equivalent to a payout ratio of 59 percent and the third-largest annual ordinary dividend in the company’s history. That was below Macquarie analysts’ expectations of a 65 percent payout.

Executive Director Mike Henry said:

‘Commodity demand has remained relatively strong in China and India even as the economies of the developed world have slowed substantially. In the short term, China’s trajectory depends on the effectiveness of recent policy measures.

“We expect buoyant growth in India with strong construction activity supporting an expansion in steelmaking capacity.

“More generally, there is greater recognition of the importance of critical minerals and strategies around the world to incentivize investment in supply and demand, bringing opportunities and challenges.”