By Rhiannon Hoyle

SYDNEY--BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP.AU) is seeking shareholder approval for the use of a dormant fiscal instrument to shift profits more evenly between its U.K.-listed business and its Australia-listed one, so it can continue paying investors matching dividends.

The company's dual-listed structure, set up when BHP merged with Billiton in 2001, requires the miner to pay cash dividends equally to shareholders in its Australia-listed and U.K.-listed entities. However, that requirement has become more difficult as businesses housed in Australia, such as its massive iron-ore mining operations, expanded into huge money-spinners for the group.

BHP said it wants to modernize an existing instrument--known currently as the Equalisation Share mechanism--that hasn't been used previously. This would allow it to transfer what is known as distributable reserves, derived from after-tax profits, across the two listed entities more efficiently.

In recent times, BHP has used intra-company loans to help fund its payouts to U.K. shareholders. However, under U.K. law, companies there must pay dividends out of distributable reserves, which isn't covered by such loans.

The use of such a fiscal instrument will "enhance the group's ability to pay dividends," BHP said in a regulatory filing.

The company has sought to satisfy yield-hungry investors with the promise it will continue to maintain or lift dividends even as total profits weaken, reinforcing a shift among the world's largest mining companies to give more cash back to shareholders as a decadelong commodities boom fades.

Write to Rhiannon Hoyle at rhiannon.hoyle@wsj.com

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 22, 2015 19:25 ET (23:25 GMT)

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