The results came out just as the local share market closed. BHP shares ended flat on the day at $38.21. The company's market value is about $186 billion, with shares down 16 per cent in 2011, more than the 12 per cent drop for the overall market. London-based shares were up as much as 30.5 euro cents, or 1.1 per cent, in early trading to 27.83 euros. Today's earnings include a full-year dividend of $US1.01 per share, which will bolster the super accounts of many Australians who hold stock in the miner. BHP has been a major beneficiary of China's surging appetite for iron ore and coal, with the miner earning about one dollar in profit for every three dollars of sales last year. The company has also been expanding, spending $US12.1 billion in its bid for US-based shale gas firm Petrohawk Energy - an amount the miner is generating in profit every six months at the current pace. Records tumble

BHP's full-year profit dwarfed the $15.6 billion net income reported by smaller rival Rio Tinto for the 2010 calendar year, and the $6.4 billion net income reported by Commonwealth Bank for the year to June 30, 2011, according to Bloomberg data. BHP is yet to disclose sales per employee for the latest year, but a year ago each employee was generating just over $1.5 million in sales. BHP Billiton also reported record underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), up 51 per cent to $US37.1 billion. Record operating cashflow of $US30.1 billion and gearing of 9 per cent confirmed the miner’s capacity to ‘‘comfortably fund’’ its $US15.1 billion acquisition of US shale gas play Petrohawk Energy as well as BHP Billiton’s extensive organic growth plans, the company said. Records were also broken for production across four commodities and 10 operations.

The giant returns, though, may not be enough to spark a jump in the company's share price, analysts said. "It's a very solid and commendable result but it's not enough in terms of the surprise factor to catapult people to go and buy the stock on the back of it,'' said Tim Schroeders, portfolio manager, at Pengana Capital, adding that ''it's probably a more guarded comment in terms of the demand outlook.'' 'Costs and currency are biting a bit harder than people were expecting but they are still optimistic over the longer term,'' Mr Schroeders said. ''Petroleum and iron ore were the stand outs and base metals was the most disappointing and that's probably a cost story as much as anything.'' BHP Billiton said its focus on large, low-cost and expandable assets had once again delivered record financial performance and returns. Cost concerns

However, it warned that it was not immune to tight labour and raw materials markets, which were currently presenting a challenge for the miner and its peers. ‘‘Costs tend to lag the commodity price cycle as consumable, labour and contractor costs are broadly correlated with the mining industry’s level of activity,’’ the company said. The devaluation of the US dollar and inflation had reduced underlying EBIT by $US3.2 billion. BHP Billiton said it expected robust demand for commodities in the short and medium term, driven by emerging economies. It also remained positive on the longer term outlook for the global economy, with recent economic data suggesting monetary policy in China and India was ‘‘having the intended effect’’.

This outcome followed a slow down in global economic growth during the second half of 2010/11 as tightened monetary policy in emerging markets, the tsunami in Japan and fiscal austerity measures dented commodities demand. The company said its confidence in the outlook for its core commodity markets and a recent share buyback had enabled the board to declare a 22 per cent ''rebasing’’ of the final dividend, increasing the full year payout to 101 US cents per share. Second-half disappoints The bumper dividend may help assuage investors miffed that BHP's second-half numbers fell short of some analysts' targets. "The dividend at 55 US cents is a bit above what we were expecting so that is a positive and it looks like most of the divisions pretty much performed to expectation,'' said Mark Taylor, senior resources analyst at Morningstar.

"From what I've seen the company has very good cost control. It's not better than expected but it's pleasing that costs have pretty much come in where we would have expected,'' he said. ''I think they've done a good job of controlling costs." Loading Soaring iron ore, copper and oil prices boosted net profit before exceptional items to $US10.98 billion for the six months to June from $US6.77 billion a year ago, short of an average forecast of $US11.7 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. AAP, Reuters with BusinessDay, Bloomberg