BHP dawdles to reveal SEC probe

April 22, 2010
By Malcom Maiden
The Age

BHP Billiton learned last August that its acquisition of exploration rights in Asia years earlier was the subject of a US Securities and Exchange Commission investigation, and it found out because the SEC told it so.

BHP sat on that information until yesterday, when it used a routine quarterly announcement to reveal that it had checked out the matter, had found evidence pointing to ''interactions'' with government officials that may have breached anti-corruption laws, and had passed that information on to the authorities.

The questions raised by this are: why didn't BHP brief the markets last August; and why did it choose not to announce the probe separately yesterday.

And the short-term answers are: BHP didn't reveal the SEC investigation last August because its legal advice was that under its continuous disclosure obligations it did not need to; and it revealed the investigation yesterday inside another, regular announcement because it believed the matter did not warrant immediate, separate disclosure.

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