BHP said it would return a record amount of cash to investors as surging coal prices helped the world’s biggest miner deliver a 26 per cent increase in annual profits. BHP said shareholder returns were close to $36bn, including the shares in Woodside Petroleum given to its shareholders in exchange for the sale of the miner’s petroleum division. The bumper payout concludes a transformational year for BHP in which the company spun out its oil and gas operations, unified its share structure in Australia and approved development of a huge potash project in Canada.