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BHP BILLITON - BHP BILLITON ANNOUNCES SECOND INTERIM DIVIDEND AND ALIGNMENT
OF DIVIDEND DECLARATION DATES WITH EARNINGS ANNOUNCEMENTS
BHP BILLITON
SHARE CODE : BIL
ISIN CODE :GB0000566504
BHP BILLITON ANNOUNCES SECOND INTERIM DIVIDEND AND ALIGNMENT
OF DIVIDEND DECLARATION DATES WITH EARNINGS ANNOUNCEMENTS
Following BHP Billiton"s decision to cease quarterly reporting of financial
results, the Board has announced today its intention to align its dividend
declaration dates with its half year and full year earnings announcements. As a
result of this decision, BHP Billiton has today announced a second interim
dividend of 8.5 US cents per share.
Commenting on these decisions, Chairman Don Argus said: "Moving our dividend
declaration dates to February and August, to coincide with our half year and
full year earnings announcements, brings us into line with normal market
practice. The second interim dividend is being paid to reflect the change in
timing of our final dividend which will now be declared in August of this year
rather than May, as has been the case in recent years. What will not change is
our focus on pursuing a progressive dividend policy."
The second interim dividend of 8.5 US cents per share will be paid to BHP
Billiton Limited and BHP Billiton Plc shareholders on 5 May 2004 and represents
an increase of 13.3% over the final dividend of 7.5 US cents per share, paid on
2 July 2003.
Full details of the timetable for this second interim dividend are attached to
this release.
Further information on BHP Billiton can be found on our Internet site:
http://www.bhpbilliton.com
Australia United Kingdom
Andrew Nairn, Investor Mark Lidiard, Investor &
Relations Media Relations
Tel: +61 3 9609 3952 Mobile: Tel: +44 20 7802 4156
+61 408 313 259 email:
email: Mark.Lidiard@bhpbilliton.com
Andrew.W.Nairn@bhpbilliton.co
m
Tania Price, Media Relations Ariane Gentil, Media
Tel: +61 3 9609 3815 Mobile: Relations
+61 419 152 780 Tel: +44 20 7802 4177
email: email:
Tania.Price@bhpbilliton.com Ariane.Gentil@bhpbilliton.co
m
United States
Francis McAllister, Investor South Africa
Relations Michael Campbell, Investor &
Tel: +1 713 961 8625 Mobile: Media Relations
+1 713 480 3699 Tel: +27 11 376 3360
email: Mobile: +27 82 458 2587
Francis.R.McAllister@bhpbilli email:
ton.com Michael.J.Campbell@bhpbillit
on.com
Timetable for BHP Billiton"s second interim dividend
A second interim dividend of 8.5 US cents per share will be paid to BHP Billiton
Limited and BHP Billiton Plc shareholders on 5 May 2004, an increase of 13.3%
over the final dividend of 7.5 US cents per share, paid on 2 July 2003. The BHP
Billiton Limited dividend will be fully franked for Australian taxation
purposes.
Dividends for the BHP Billiton Group are determined and declared in US dollars.
However, BHP Billiton Limited dividends are mainly paid in Australian dollars
and BHP Billiton Plc dividends are mainly paid in pounds sterling to
shareholders on the UK section of the register and South African rand to
shareholders on the South African section of the register. The rates of
exchange applicable two business days before the announcement date are used for
conversion, and are detailed below.
The timetable in respect of this dividend will be:
Currency conversion 19 March 2004
Last day to trade Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) 6 April 2004
Ex-dividend Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) 7 April 2004
Ex-dividend Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) 8 April 2004
Ex-dividend London Stock Exchange (LSE) 14 April 2004
Record 16 April 2004
American Depositary Shares (ADSs) each represent two fully paid ordinary shares
and receive dividends accordingly. The record date for BHP Billiton Limited
ADSs is 15 April 2004 and for BHP Billiton Plc ADSs is 16 April 2004.
BHP Billiton Plc shareholders registered on the South African section of the
register will not be able to dematerialise or rematerialise their shareholdings,
nor will they be able to effect transfers between the UK register and the South
African register between the dates of 7 April 2004 and 16 April 2004.
The following table details the exchange rates applicable for conversion of the
dividend payable on 5 May 2004:
Exchange Dividend per
Dividend 8.5 US Rate ordinary
cents Share in local
currency
Australian cents 0.749716 11.337627
British pence 1.833993 4.634696
South African 6.626434 56.324689
cents
New Zealand cents 0.656200 12.953368
Date: 23/03/2004 08:09:43 AM Produced by the JSE SENS Department
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