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UK and international investors who hold some two-thirds of BHP Billiton's
shares have greeted warily the abrupt departure of chief executive officer Brian
Gilbertson after just six months, with some seeing ominous parallels with
another dual-listed Australian operation, Brambles.
They noted similarities between the ousting of Brian Gilbertson under
chairman Don Argus and the previous untimely departure also under Mr Argus of
Brambles chief executive John Fletcher, who now heads Coles Myer.
Brambles suffered its grimmest ever year in 2002. Its shares lost some 50 per
cent of their value over the 12 months amid a welter of profit warnings,
culminating in a fierce grilling of Mr Argus and UK-based chief executive Sir CK
Chow by disgruntled shareholders at the annual meeting in November.
Sir CK replaced Mr Fletcher as CEO at the formerly Australian-based operation
in August 2001.
UK commentators also noted perceptions of a shift in the balance of power
from the Billiton camp in London towards the BHP camp in Australia.
Analysts said that this shift combined with expectations the financially
disciplined new chief executive Chip Goodyear would focus on internal
development and cost cutting, versus Mr Gilbertson's push on external growth
could reduce the appeal of the group to some global investors.
``Ideally you would like a balance of the two styles, that they did not
retreat from an international approach and were also a tight, well-run
company," one investor commented.
``But if you can't have both then we would probably rather that they hunkered
down at this stage."
While investors judged whether the abrupt change of chief executive masked
further underlying management problems, they expected the short-term negative
sentiment to hang over the shares.
The ``irreconcilable differences" cited by BHP Billiton for Mr Gilbertson's
departure also drew attention to the board's composition, with analysts counting
six of the 10 directors as being in the BHP camp.
By the time the Monday morning news of Mr Gilbertson's departure reached
London markets, the nine remaining board members were yet to be joined by two
new directors due to be appointed.
These directors include former BP chief financial officer John Buchanan his
appointment is effective from February 1 and he replaces BHP deputy chairman
John Jackson, who retired in November plus another Billiton operative expected
to replace John Ralph, who also retired in November.
These non-Australian additions to the board might have tipped the numbers in
Mr Gilbertson's favour, analysts speculated.
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