LONDON--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.
Write to Alex MacDonald at alex.macdonald@dowjones.com
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