23 February 2022
If you are covering Rio Tinto’s latest financial results, please find below a comment from Jamie Maddock, equity research analyst at Quilter Cheviot:
“Rio Tinto reported full year results that highlighted the benefits the company has reaped from the high iron ore prices. Its underlying iron ore business has shown to have strong profitability and really taken advantage of rising prices with free cashflow improving by around 90% to $18bn. This improvement has enabled it to pay out a record $17bn in dividends, while maintaining a strong financial position with net cash of $1.5bn.
“There is no change to near and longer-term spending outlook, however, higher costs are coming through driven by labour and fuel costs so this will weight slightly going forward. That said, iron ore prices continue to track higher driven by expectations of further easing of Chinese financing conditions. This will support 2022 earnings for Rio Tinto and we expect it to be another fruitful year for the global miner.”
