$67m payday for former BHP chief

Controversial former BHP Billiton chief Brian Gilbertson has celebrated his biggest payday yet after helping engineer Russian group Rusal’s record-breaking aluminium merger.
  
Mr Gilberston was a key architect of the deal as president of Rusal’s Russian rival, Sual, which will be combined with Rusal and Glencore’s alumina assets to form the world’s biggest aluminium producer.
  
London newspaper reports said Mr Gilbertson, who pocketed a hefty payout on his sudden exit from BHP Billiton three years ago, reaped a $US50 million ($67 million) bonus last week from Sual shareholders, including the oligarch, Viktor Vekselberg, for completing the Rusal merger.
  
The Times said the payment was understood to have been made on Thursday — the day on which Mr Gilbertson’s Sual contract expired.
  
Oleg Deripaska, the Rusal owner, had refused to pay the bonus from either Rusal or Sual funds and insisted that it be paid out of shareholders’ pockets, the newspaper said.
  
As Billiton’s chief executive, Mr Gilbertson was a driving force behind the company’s mid-2001 merger with BHP, negotiating a deal which is now seen as heavily advantageous to Billiton shareholders.
  
The former South African rocket scientist succeeded Paul Anderson in July 2002 but lasted just six months before being sacked by the board for “irreconcilable differences”. He walked out with a $12.5 million golden handshake and $1.5 million a year pension for life.
  
Renowned as one of the best dealmakers in the resources industry, Mr Gilberston later hooked up with Indian metals group Vedanta Resources, only to run into more controversy.
  
Hired to oversee Vedanta’s listing on the London Stock Exchange in December 2003, he was paid an annual salary of £350,000 ($885,000) and awarded shares in the group worth £7.2 million. But he infuriated investors by dumping half of the holding on Vedanta’s first day of trading. He joined Sual seven months later.
  
As non-executive chairman of the merged group, Mr Gilbertson will be charged with taking it to a $US10 billion float on the London Stock Exchange within 18 months.
  
The new company, which will overtake Alcoa and Alcan in the production stakes, will include Rusal’s 20 per cent stake in Australia’s biggest alumina refinery, the QAL plant at Gladstone, as well as plants in Russia, China, Guyana, Ireland, Jamaica, Italy and Sweden.
  
Analysts have said that the three companies complement each other perfectly — Sual has big holdings of bauxite, aluminum’s raw material, while Rusal has the biggest smelters and access to cheap electricity.
  
The deal is also being seen as a milestone in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s bid to create resources giants capable of competing in global markets and influencing prices.
  
“With the extractive industries the Kremlin clearly favours consolidation and for Russian companies to become bigger global players,” said Chris Weafer, chief strategist for Alfa Bank in Moscow.