Activist hedge fund Elliott Advisors has renewed its push for a restructure of BHP Billiton, asking the company's board to immediately review its dual listed company structure.
Elliott said an independent report it had commissioned found that removal of the dual-listing structure would deliver more than $US22 billion of shareholder value.
It called for the board to take "the next, necessary step at BHP, which is for the board to commit to resolving, without further delay, the issue of BHP's obsolete and value destroying DLC structure."
Elliott, which last week also slightly bumped up its interest in BHP's London-listed entity to 5.45 per cent, has demanded that the resources giant agree by February 20 to undertake a full and transparent review of the proposal.
The hedge fund, along with other activist shareholders, has been agitating for improved returns since April 2017.
The renewed push comes after Elliott achieved partial victory with its campaign last year for BHP to restructure its sprawling business interests.
The miner in August declared its US shale assets as "non-core" and said it would actively pursue options to exit them.
BHP's dual listed structure, under which it operates as two separate companies listed in Sydney and London but under a single management, is the result of the 2001 merger of BHP Ltd and Billiton Plc that created the current mining group.
The miner has previously said it keeps the dual-listed structure under review, but has been unable to identify sufficient benefits to outweigh the significant costs that would be incurred by unifying the two entities.
RBC Capital Markets' London-based mining analyst Tyler Broda has questioned the value accretion figures from Elliott's proposal but says the unwinding of BHP's dual-listed company would provide for a cleaner structure that would be a governance positive.
"We do not perceive BHP to be structurally undervalued so we would be cautious in attributing too much value here," he said.
"There is no question, however, that if an adequate restructuring be created, the ability to release franking credits more efficiently would be a source of value."
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