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Anglo-Australian miner BHP Billiton Ltd. on Wednesday announced it had more than doubled its first-half profit to US$6.1 billion after selling record quantities of key commodities and keeping a firm hand on its costs.

The world’s biggest miner delivered a 134 percent rise in net profit for the six months to Dec. 31, 2009, to $6.1 billion, from $2.6 billion over the same period a year earlier.

However, the result was inflated by the sale of the Ravensthorpe nickle mine in Western Australia state year for $340 million to First Quantum Minerals Ltd.

BHP closed the loss-making mine early last year.

Excluding one-offs, BHP Billion’s net profit was $5.7 billion, down 7 percent from $6.1 billion in the first half of 2008/09.

That was stronger than analysts’ expectations of $5.1 billion.

BHP Billiton said its result was “sound” given continuing volatility and uncertainty in the global economy.

“Strong sales volume growth on the back of demand recovery, particularly in the steelmaking raw materials and good cost control across the business helped to partially offset the negative impacts of lower prices and stronger producers currencies,” it said in a statement.

Its underlying earnings before interest and tax, a figure known as EBIT, were $8.5 billion for the first six months of the financial year, down from $11.9 billion a year earlier. Analysts had predicted underlying EBIT of $7.9 billion.

BHP Billiton said global economic conditions had improved over the past six months, as the United States and Europe lifted industrial output from previously depressed levels and China returned to double digit growth.

“Government stimulus measures appear to have supported the restocking activities in the developed economies and a gradual return to normalized global trade,” it said.

But BHP Billiton remains cautious about the speed and strength of the global economic recovery across the developed world.

“It appears that stimulus measures that supported the recovery have not fully addressed structural issues such as weak labor markets and excess production capacity in developed economies,” it said.

The company said a further variable would be the impact of any measures to control loan growth in China.

“It is evident that in the short term, the Chinese government will focus on containing asset inflation,” it said.

BHP said commodity markets will continue to be largely dependent on Chinese and Indian demand.

“Real commodity demand in the developed economies remains restrained and the impact of the gradual withdrawal of government stimulus will be a key driver,” it said.

“In the long term, we continue to expect strong growth in demand for our commodities,” it added.

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Standard & Poor’s has followed through on its warning and lowered Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s long-term credit rating Thursday as the Omaha firm readies to acquire Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp.

The ratings agency lowered Berkshire’s rating one notch to “AA+” from “AAA,” its highest designation.

S&P also removed the ratings from CreditWatch, where they were placed with negative implications in November, and called the outlook stable.

Berkshire Hathaway officials didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

S&P said it expects a significant part of the cash portion to come from Berkshire Hathaway’s core insurance operations, and the $26.3 billion railroad purchase will reduce the liquidity of the company’s insurance operations.

Shareholders of BNSF are scheduled to vote on the proposed acquisition Feb. 11.

The deal is expected to close by Feb. 15.

“The rating actions are based on our view that Berkshire’s overall capital adequacy, as well as that of its insurance operations, has weakened to levels no longer consistent with a ‘AAA’ rating and is not expected to return to extremely strong levels in the near term,” Standard & Poor’s credit analyst John Iten said in a statement.

“Furthermore, we expect that the consolidated liquidity position of Berkshire will be reduced from extremely strong historical levels as a result of the acquisition.”

In the ratings agency’s view, investment risk remains very high, “compounding the need for extremely strong capital and liquidity given potential investment volatility.”

With the downgrade, just four U.S. industrial companies maintain S&P’s “AAA” rating: Microsoft Corp., Exxon Mobil Corp., Johnson & Johnson and Automatic Data Processing Inc. More than a dozen U.S. financial institutions, including the Knights of Columbus and New York Life Insurance Co., hold the highest designation.

The acquisition of Burlington Northern Santa Fe, the nation’s second-largest railroad, would be the biggest ever for Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway investment company.

Berkshire Hathaway, based in Omaha, Nebraska, owns a 22 percent stake in Burlington Northern and would buy up the rest under the deal.

Berkshire shareholders last month approved splitting the company’s Class B shares 50-for-1 as part of the deal.

The split will enable Berkshire to offer even small Burlington Northern shareholders Berkshire stock as part of the acquisition of the nation’s second-largest railroad.

The stock split also made Berkshire’s Class B stock much more affordable, at roughly $69 per share, which is expected to increase Berkshire’s liquidity.

The Class A shares, which remain the most expensive U.S. stock at more than $100,000, won’t be split.

The Class A shares hold more voting rights than the Class B shares.

Berkshire Hathaway also filed documents Thursday indicating that it plans to sell $8 billion of debt to finance the acquisition using a combination of fixed-rate and floating-rate notes of various maturities.

The Class B shares fell $1.75, or 2.4 percent, to $72.61 in afternoon trading, losing 16 cents more in after-hours trading.

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Kraft reached a $19 billion deal Tuesday to buy Cadbury, finally succeeding in its takeover of the 200-year-old British candy maker after sweetening its offer.

Cadbury’s board said it was unanimously recommending the bid to shareholders.

The cash-and-stock offer values each Cadbury share at 840 pence, or about $13.72. Shareholders will also be entitled to a 10 pence dividend per share.

Under the terms of the deal, for each share they own, Cadbury shareholders will receive 500 pence in cash and 0.1874 new Kraft shares.

Cadbury (CBY) shares rose nearly 4% in London.  The deal, which creates a global food behemoth, comes after months of back and forth between the two companies.

Kraft (KFT, Fortune 500) initially launched a $16 billion takeover bid for Cadbury in September. But the company was repeatedly rebuffed by Cadbury.

Kraft, which makes everything from Oreo cookies to American cheese slices, had met resistance from some of its shareholders over its pursuit of Cadbury.

Earlier this month, billionaire investor Warren Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway is Kraft’s biggest shareholder, voted against Kraft’s proposal to issue new shares for its takeover bid.

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