25th Sep 2014 05:48
MELBOURNE (Alliance News) - Mining giant BHP Billiton Ltd's Chief Executive Officer Andrew Mackenzie has earned a pay package of USD8 million in his first year at the company's helm, about half the amount his predecessor Marius Kloppers earned in his final year.
BHP Billiton, which is grappling with falling commodity prices, has also put a freeze on the remuneration to be paid to Mackenzie and other members of the company's senior management team for fiscal 2015.
Mackenzie earned a total pay package of USD7.98 million for fiscal 2014, including a base salary of USD1.70 million. In comparison, Kloppers earned a total remuneration of USD15.99 million in his final year as CEO.
In its annual report for 2014, BHP Billiton said, "Last year, when Mackenzie was appointed to the CEO role, the Board and Committee believed that some downward rebasing of his remuneration package, relative to that of the former CEO, was appropriate; a view supported by Mr Mackenzie. This year, following the Committee's annual review process, the FY2015 base salary of Mr Mackenzie has not been increased."
Accordingly, Mackenzie will not receive a base salary increase increase in September 2014 and it will remain unchanged at USD1.70 million per annum for fiscal 2015.
BHP Billiton added that other elements of Mackenzie's total target remuneration, including pension contributions, benefits and short-term and long-term incentive targets, will remain the same in fiscal 2015 as in fiscal 2014.
Further, BHP Billiton said that consistent with the approach for Mackenzie, the base salaries and total target remuneration packages for other GMC members have also been held constant for 2015. Aligned with this, non-executive director fees were again frozen, for the third straight year.
In August, BHP Billiton reported an increase in profit for fiscal 2014, as revenues benefited from strong production growth, despite weak prices.
Further, BHP said it plans to separate its high-quality aluminium, coal, manganese, nickel and silver assets through a demerger, as it aims to become a simpler, more productive, higher-margin, higher-return company. Following this, BHP will be almost exclusively focused on its exceptionally large, long-life iron ore, copper, coal, petroleum and potash basins.
BHP closed Wednesday's trading at USD62.20, up USD0.73 or 1.19% on a volume of 2.73 million shares.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX
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