MELBOURNE, Aug 24 (Reuters) - South32 Ltd S32.AX , the mid-sized miner spun off by BHP Billiton (LONDON:BLT) BHP.AX in May, reported a 41 percent rise in pro-forma profit in its maiden annual results on Monday and flagged that it would cut costs sharply over the next three years.
Underlying pro-forma profit for the year to June rose to $575 million, but that was well below analysts' forecasts for underlying profit of $700 million, according to Thomson Reuters.
South32 said it aimed to cut costs by at least $350 million a year over the next three years, or around 8 percent of its controllable cost base, noting that it could get further benefits for currency moves.
"The implementation of our regional operating model and broader cost saving initiatives are already delivering strong results," Chief Executive Graham Kerr said in a statement.
The company expects to cut stay-in-business capital spending by 9 percent to $650 million in the year to June 2016, with plans to reduce output from most operations except Australian energy coal, Australian manganese, the Worsley alumina plant, and Cannington silver mine.