Glencore Xstrata PLC (GLEN.LN) has appointed the former BP PLC (BP)
chief executive Tony Hayward as its interim chairman after shareholders voted
against the election of Sir John Bond as chairman, a person familiar with the
matter said Thursday.
Mr. Hayward, 55, currently Glencore Xstrata's senior independent director and
CEO of Genel Energy PLC (GENL.LN), has become the interim chairman of the
recently merged commodities titan after Glencore Xstrata shareholders opposed
the election of Mr. Bond as chairman of the combined entity, the person said.
Mr. Hayward stepped down as the head of BP in October 2010 following the
Deepwater Horizon disaster in April of the same year.
John Bond told shareholders: "It's clear...that I will not be re-elected as
your chairman therefore I think the right thing for me to do is to pass the
chair to Tony Hayward, who is the senior independent director and deputy
chairman to conduct the meeting."
At the company's first annual general meeting on Thursday, Mr. Hayward chaired
the event while Mr. Bond, the chairman of the combined group since the merger
was completed on May 2, sat a few seats away.
Mr. Bond had previously announced when he was chairman of Xstrata that he would
step down as chairman-designate of the combined group once the search for a new
Glencore Xstrata chairman had been satisfactorily completed, sometime after the
merger had been closed.
Mr. Bond announced his plans to leave the company after Xstrata shareholders'
voted last year not to support the Xstrata board's recommendations for the
merger, which included a contentious retention package for Xstrata's top
managers that had to be revised once before it was put to a vote.
Mr. Bond, 70, had served as Xstrata's chairman since May 2011 and played a key
role in the merger process to create the world's fourth-largest diversified
miner. However, he faced mounting dissatisfaction from some shareholders after
Xstrata's second-largest shareholder, sovereign-wealth fund Qatar Holding LLC,
secured a 3.05 share-swap ratio offer from Glencore after it threatened to vote
against the original Xstrata-backed 2.8 share-swap ratio.
Mr. Bond also faced criticism for agreeing to the excessive retention payments
and for backing a voting structure that made approval of the merger contingent
upon acceptance of the retention packages.
Glencore Xstrata also said Thursday that another board director, Steve Robson,
had resigned with immediate effect prior to the annual general meeting. The
person familiar with the matter said shareholders had also voted against Mr.
Robson in the proxy vote ahead of the AGM. Mr Robson had served on Xstrata's board since 2002.