Earnings per share

12 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2021

7 Earnings per share


	2021		2020		2019
Earnings attributable to BHP shareholders (US$M)
- Continuing operations		11,304		7,956		8,648
- Total		11,304		7,956		8,306
Weighted average number of shares (Million)
- Basic		5,057		5,057		5,180
- Diluted		5,068		5,069		5,193
Basic earnings per ordinary share (US cents)
- Continuing operations		223.5		157.3		166.9
- Total		223.5		157.3		160.3
Diluted earnings per ordinary share (US cents)
- Continuing operations		223.0		157.0		166.5
- Total		223.0		157.0		159.9
Headline earnings per ordinary share (US cents)
- Basic		284.8		171.1		164.9
- Diluted		284.2		170.7		164.5

Refer to note 29 ‘Discontinued operations’ for basic earnings per share and diluted earnings per share for Discontinued operations.

Earnings on American Depositary Shares represent twice the earnings for BHP Group Limited or BHP Group Plc ordinary shares.

Headline earnings is a Johannesburg Stock Exchange defined performance measure and is reconciled from earnings attributable to ordinary shareholders as follows:


	2021			2020		2019
	US$M			US$M		US$M
Earnings attributable to BHP shareholders		11,304			7,956		8,306
Adjusted for:
(Gain)/loss on sales of PP&E, Investments and Operations (1)		(50	)		4		(52	)
Impairments of property, plant and equipment, financial assets and intangibles		2,633			494		264
Samarco impairment expense		111			95		96
Cerrejón impairment expense		466			–		–
Other (2)		–			48		–
Recycling of re-measurements from equity to the income statement		–			–		(6	)
Tax effect of above adjustments		(60	)		54		(64	)

Subtotal of adjustments		3,100			695		238

Headline earnings		14,404			8,651		8,544

Diluted headline earnings		14,404			8,651		8,544

(1)	Included in other income.

(2)	Mainly represent BHP share of impairment embedded in the statutory income statement of the Group’s equity accounted investments.

Recognition and measurement

Diluted earnings attributable to BHP shareholders are equal to the earnings attributable to BHP shareholders.

The calculation of the number of ordinary shares used in the computation of basic earnings per share is the aggregate of the weighted average number of ordinary shares of BHP Group Limited and BHP Group Plc outstanding during the period after deduction of the number of shares held by the Billiton Employee Share Ownership Trust and the BHP Billiton Limited Employee Equity Trust.

During December 2018, 266 million BHP Group Limited shares were bought back and then cancelled during the period following an

off-market

buy-back

program of US$5.2 billion related to the disbursement of proceeds from the disposal of Onshore US.

For the purposes of calculating diluted earnings per share, the effect of 11 million dilutive shares has been taken into account for the year ended 30 June 2021 (2020: 12 million shares; 2019: 13 million shares). The Group’s only potential dilutive ordinary shares are share awards granted under the employee share ownership plans for which terms and conditions are described in note 25 ‘Employee share ownership plans’. Diluted earnings per share calculation excludes instruments which are considered antidilutive.

At 30 June 2021, there are no instruments which are considered antidilutive (2020: nil; 2019: nil).