BHP Billiton chief misses out on hefty bonus

THE Scots head of BHP Billiton, the world’s biggest miner, has missed out on £3.9 million of long-term bonuses despite the company outperforming its rivals.

The group said Andrew Mackenzie was also “voluntarily” giving up shares worth £941,000 under his sign-up agreement from when he joined the business in 2008.

In a statement, BHP’s remuneration committee said “Andrew has concluded, and the committee agrees, that despite the outperformance of BHP Billiton compared to its peer group, the value delivered through vesting of the sign-on awards would be excessive.”

Mackenzie, who was first poached from rival Rio Tinto in 2008, was still awarded cash and shares worth £4.6m by the company under the five-year performance bonus scheme.

BHP has cut bonus payouts across its executive board largely because total returns to shareholders (TSR) were negative rather than positive over the five years to June 2013, although at minus 9.4 per cent, BHP’s return was far better than the negative 44 per cent return suffered by its peers.

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

Mackenzie, 56, who grew up in Kirkintilloch, began his career with BP before moving to Rio Tinto in 2004 to head its industrial minerals division, where he oversaw the building of a $5 billion (£3.2bn) titanium mine in Madagascar.

He was initially recruited to BHP to run the group’s non-ferrous arm before moving up to the top job earlier this year.

Mackenzie is on a basic salary of £1.1m, less than his predecessor Marius Kloppers, who was on £1.35m. Full-year profits at the firm fell by some 30 per cent in its latest figures.