BHP Billiton share price: four new directors appointed to South32 board

BHP Billiton Plc (LON:BLT) today announced four additional appointments to the board of South32, the spinoff entity which will take some of BHP’s high quality assets, provided the demerger is approved by shareholders at meetings in May.

BHP Billiton’s share price soared 2.34 percent to 1,465.00p as of 08:37 BST today, outperforming the FTSE 100 which was up about 1.3 percent, and just surpassing blue-chip mining peer Rio Tinto Plc (LON:RIO) which had added 2.24 percent to 2,812.50p.
The new non-executive board members of South32 are Frank Cooper of Woodside Petroleum, Peter Kukielski formerly of ArcelorMittal, Ntombifuthi (Futhi) Mtoba, who was chairwoman at Deloitte Southern Africa, and Wayne Osborn, former Australia managing director at Alcoa.
The new directors will be joining Graham Kerr, chief executive officer elect, and the three other current members of South32’s board on May 7, subject to shareholder approval.
“The addition of these four individuals to the future South32 Board further enhances the extensive mining, exploration, commercial and financial experience of our Board,” South32 chairman elect David Crawford commented. “The appointments bring broad international business experience across multiple industries with a particular focus on finance, processing and mining.”
The proposed demerger is planned to spin off some of BHP’s high quality assets into a separate, independent company, South32, as the miner seeks to simplify its portfolio and increase profitability. The assets to be allocated to the new company include alumina, aluminium, coal, manganese, nickel, silver, lead and zinc operations across five countries and a workforce of some 27,000.
The demerger will be voted on by shareholders at two meetings in Perth, Australia, and London on May 6.
As of 08:41 BST, Tuesday, 07 April, BHP Billiton plc share price is 1,472.25p.