Rio Tinto ltd announce a $16.8 billion full-year dividend, equivalent to 1,040 US cents per share and 79% of underlying earnings, includes $6.7 billion record final ordinary dividend (417 US cents per share) and $1.0 billion final special dividend (62 US cents per share) declared today.
Other financial highlights include:
• $25.3 billion net cash generated from operating activities was 60% higher than 2020 driven by higher prices. This flowed through to 88% higher free cash flow of $17.7 billion, which included a 19% rise in capital expenditure to $7.4 billion.
• $21.1 billion of net earnings, 116% higher than 2020, reflected the higher prices, the impact of closure provision increases at Energy Resources of Australia (ERA) and other non-operating sites, $0.5 billion of exchange and derivative gains and $0.2 billion of impairments. Effective tax rate on net earnings of 27.7% compared with 33.1% in 2020.
• $37.7 billion underlying EBITDA was 58% above 2020, with an underlying EBITDA margin of 57%.
• $21.4 billion underlying earnings (underlying EPS of 1,321.1 US cents) were 72% above 2020 with a 28.0% effective tax rate on underlying earnings, compared with 29.5% in 2020.
• $1.6 billion of net cash at year end, compared with net debt of $0.7 billion at the start of the year, reflected the free cash flow of $17.7 billion, partly offset by $15.4 billion of cash returns to shareholders.
