BHP boss’s pay dips

BHP Billiton CEO Andrew Mackenzie sees his remuneration fall 43 percent after a commodity rout.

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Melbourne - The head of the BHP Billiton, the world’s biggest mining company, saw his remuneration fall 43 percent after a commodity rout that’s seen share prices and profits tumble amid faltering growth in China, its largest customer.

Chief Executive Officer Andrew Mackenzie received salary and incentive payments of $4.58 million in the 12 months to June 30, down from $7.98 million a year earlier, Melbourne-based BHP said on Wednesday in its annual report.

The company’s Sydney-traded stock fell about 20 percent in fiscal 2015 and it recorded a 52 percent fall in full-year underlying profits amid weaker prices for iron ore to copper and coal.

Supply gluts and forecasts for the slowest growth since 1990 in China have sent the price of raw materials plunging. A Bloomberg index of 22 materials, including copper and oil, reached the lowest in 16 years last month. Iron ore, BHP’s highest earner, has slumped 30 percent in the past year as supply expansions overwhelm weaker demand growth.

Mackenzie’s short-term incentive payments were affected by five worker deaths in fiscal 2015 and writedowns on the company’s US shale operations, BHP said. The 58-year-old didn’t receive his long-term incentive payments because the company underperformed its peers and the benchmark in returns to shareholders.

His base salary of $1.7 million and a target remuneration of about $7.8 million will remain unchanged in the current fiscal year, BHP said.

BLOOMBERG