Newcrest in further proxy fire ahead of AGM
The tide of protest against Newcrest Mining is building ahead of the gold miner’s annual meeting next week, with another two proxy advisers recommending against key resolutions to be put to shareholders, according to the Australian Financial Review.
Last week’s announcement of departure dates for chairman Don Mercer and CEO Greg Robinson has failed to soften the views of Ownership Matters and Kolesnikoff Governance as well as some institutional shareholders.
Both proxy advisers have joined ISS in advising clients to vote against the re-election of non-executive directors Richard Lee, Tim Poole and John Spark at the annual meeting.
They have also gone a step further than ISS in their criticism of the financial management and governance of the company, recommending a vote against its remuneration report as well.
In its report on Newcrest, published on Friday, Ownership Matters linked its opposition to the re-election of the three directors to making the board accountable for the gold mining company’s disappointing performance in the past five years.
Hancock trust stays in family
The New South Wales Supreme Court has ruled that the contentious Hancock family trust needs to stay under the control of Gina Rinehart's feuding children to protect the family company's $A10 billion-plus Hope Downs joint venture with Rio Tinto, according to The West Australian.
The civil case that began two years ago with allegations of gross misconduct and dishonesty against Rinehart ended yesterday with a judge linking the fate of her bitter and long-running family feud with the jewel in her company's crown.
Justice Paul Brereton said a clause in Hancock Prospecting's 2006 joint venture agreement with Rio Tinto barred any moves to shift ownership and control of the trust - which owned about a quarter of the family company - out of the hands of the mining magnate or her children.
The move had been designed to protect Rio Tinto from the possibility that any of its competitors could get access to the company's infrastructure.
The clause became central to the family feud yesterday, with lawyers for the Rinehart camp describing the trial as a "kamikaze mission" by Rinehart's two estranged children, John Hancock and Bianca Rinehart, which put the entire project and future of the family company at risk.
"The damage would be enormous," Hancock Prospecting's lawyer, David Studdy, said.
BHP’s use of jewellery to cut tax bill disputed by Colombia
Bloomberg reports that BHP Billiton underpaid royalties in Colombia by listing items such as jewellery and entertainment among production costs, according to the preliminary findings of a government audit.
By claiming expenses including a gold watch strap, english classes, concerts and a production of The Vagina Monologues, BHP’s Cerro Matoso ferronickel mine underpaid 62 billion pesos ($US33 million) in taxes in 1998 and 2003 when adjusted to today’s prices, the comptroller’s office said in an email that contained a list of the disputed expenses.
The agency, known as Contraloria General de la Republica, put a lien on Cerro Matoso assets for that amount by August and plans to make a final decision in June. The audit of the mine’s previous operating contracts comes as BHP seeks to expand the world’s second biggest ferronickel mine and faces community protests over alleged pollution.
BHP declined to respond to emailed questions on the tax case. While the company appears to have complied with its contracts, the comptroller general “has the final word on this,” Maria Garcia, head of the government’s mining agency, said in an October 3 interview in Bogota.
“There were some ‘costs’ applied to the royalties that clearly are not part of those related to the production activity,” the comptroller’s office said in the report.
