Reuters: Deals: BlackRock reduces BHP Billiton stake: paper

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BlackRock reduces BHP Billiton stake: paper Mar 28th 2012, 21:56 Tweet Share this Email Print Related News Analysis: Gold: For richer, for poorer as crisis cools 3:38pm EDT Corporate sell-offs seen increasing mining M&A Tue, Mar 27 2012 UPDATE 4-Diamonds not forever: Rio Tinto may sell business Tue, Mar 27 2012 Stocks fall on China, oil plunges on Saudi assurance Tue, Mar 20 2012 Copper sinks as China slowdown fears escalate Tue, Mar 20 2012 Analysis & Opinion Playing the pension game Little context for Obama energy speech in Ohio Related Topics Deals » Global Deals Review: 2011 Q3 » Global Deals Review: 2011 Q2 » Global Deals Review » Inflows Outflows » A BlackRock building is seen in New York June 12, 2009. Credit: Reuters/Eric Thayer MELBOURNE | Wed Mar 28, 2012 5:56pm EDT MELBOURNE (Reuters) - BlackRock Inc., the world's largest money manager, has reduced its position in BHP Billiton (BHP.AX) (BLT.L) on concern over near-term returns as the mining giant pursues a long-term growth strategy, the Australian newspaper said on Thursday. Catherine Raw, the co-fund manager of the BlackRock World Mining Fund and a member of a team that manages $39.9 billion in assets, said the group had reduced its weighting of BHP to 6.5 percent from as high as 10 percent, the report said. The fund maintained its overweight exposure to Rio Tinto (RIO.AX) and had been increasing its position in Fortescue Metals Group (FMG.AX). BlackRock has been critical of BHP's multi-billion-dollar shale gas acquisitions in the United States. Investors are worried that the move into shale gas will dent BHP's returns for some time as a gas glut has knocked U.S. natural gas prices down nearly 50 percent since last June. Raw said BlackRock was also wary of BHP's costly, long-term expansions of the Olympic Dam copper-gold mine in South Australia and its iron-ore export facilities in the Pilbara. "Some of their decisions are very good in terms of long-term strategy, but are you going to make money from it in the next three years, which is our investment horizon?," the newspaper quoted her as saying in Hong Kong. "They need to clearly indicate to the market what their strategy around Olympic Dam is, around shale gas, all of these things, to return confidence that they're not spending huge amounts of capex for very low returns, which is one of the perceptions in the market and one of the reasons why we just don't need to have such a large position." Raw, who was bullish on iron ore and gold, urged Australia's largest gold producer, Newcrest Mining (NCM.AX), to increase its dividend payments. (Reporting by Miranda Maxwell; Editing by John Mair) Global Deals Review: 2011 Q3 Global Deals Review: 2011 Q2 Related Quotes and News Company Price Related News Tweet this Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/ Comments (0) Be the first to comment on reuters.com. Add yours using the box above.

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