BHP Billiton Again Holds CEO's Base Pay Steady
September 19 2017 - 7:32PM
Dow Jones News
By Robb M. Stewart
MELBOURNE, Australia--BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP.AU) will hold the
base salary and targeted bonus packages of its chief executive and
top management unchanged this fiscal year, despite a sharp
turnaround in the resources giant's fortunes.
The annual base salary for CEO Andrew Mackenzie has again been
set at US$1.7 million, BHP said in its annual report, released
Wednesday. Mr. Mackzenzie's base pay hasn't changed since he
succeeded Marius Kloppers in 2013 and BHP set a sharply lower base
for its incoming boss than the almost US$2.22 million Mr. Kloppers
left on.
For the last year through June, Mr. Mackenzie's took home
slightly more than US$4.55 million in all, after the remuneration
committee opted to pay a short-term incentive of 86% of the
possible payout he could have received, in part to reflect a mining
fatality. That still marked a sharp jump on the US$2.24 million
paid the year before, when the CEO didn't receive a short-term
incentive following the fatal collapse of a dam at the Samarco
iron-ore venture in Brazil.
And while the company's overall financial performance improved
over the past year, it was below target mainly due to the impact on
production of a strike at the Escondida copper operation in Chile.
The company said it also considered Mr. Mackenzie's performance
against personal objectives, including productivity and capital
spending improvements and an acceleration of diversity targets.
BHP, the world's largest listed miner, said that in line with
the approach for Mr. Mackenzie, the base salaries and total target
remuneration packages for all senior managers will be held steady
this fiscal year.
Carolyn Hewson, chairman of BHP's remuneration committee, said
there had been various proposals put forward by some shareholders
and other groups to consider alternative remuneration arrangements,
particularly in the U.K., but there was no consensus. A recent
review by the company confirmed the current approach was
appropriate but Ms. Hewson said the committee would consider ways
to simplify remuneration while ensuring it remains able to offer
competitive pay packages.
With a strong improvement in commodity prices and after a
continued focus on cutting costs, BHP recorded a net profit of
US$5.89 billion in the 12 months through June against a
year-earlier loss of US$6.39 billion, when BHP absorbed an
impairment hit on its onshore U.S. oil-and-gas business and a
charge for the 2015 dam failure at Samarco.
Write to Robb M. Stewart at robb.stewart@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 19, 2017 19:17 ET (23:17 GMT)
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