BHP Billiton cuts bonuses, chief exec forgoes US$1.5m in shares

BHP Billiton has cut bonus payouts to its top executives, as total returns to shareholders fell over five years, even though the top global miner beat its target for outperforming its peers over that period.

New chief executive Andrew Mackenzie, who was first poached from rival Rio Tinto in 2008, also gave up shares worth 941,000 pounds (HK$11.4 million) at Thursday’s close that were due to him from his sign-on bonus.

In total, Mackenzie was awarded shares worth 4.6 million pounds, after the company decided to pay out only 65 per cent of long-term share bonuses. That left him 3.9 million pounds short of the total he could have earned.

BHP cut bonus payouts largely because total returns to shareholders (TSR) were negative rather than positive over the five years to June this year, although at negative 9.4 per cent, BHP’s return looked far better than the negative 44 per cent return suffered by its peers.

That was above the company’s target to outperform peers by at least 31 per cent.