New BlueScope CEO Tania Archibald pledges ‘new era’ in warning shot to suitors
BlueScope has more than doubled its first-half profit and interim dividend. Its new CEO is calling it an ‘inflection point’.
Two weeks after taking the reigns at BlueScope Steel, new chief executive Tania Archibald appears to be relishing the timing of her appointment, using today’s half-year results to position the company at the start of a new earnings cycle, ramp up dividends and raise the stakes for circling suitors.
“This is very much the start of a new era,” she told Capital Brief. “We’re at that inflection point where we’re ramping down the capital spend, ramping up the shareholder returns, and we’re getting the benefit of that now.
“I’m getting the benefit of all of that work that’s been done over many years now, in terms of those major capital investments, the way that they’ve been executed, and the way that they underpin the resilience and growth of the earnings base across the next decade and beyond.”
BlueScope more than doubled its first-half net profit — from $179 million to $391 million — outstripping market estimates of $356 million, according to Visible Alpha data.
