NRW plans board, pay changes

NRW Holdings chairman Ian Burston has announced plans to step down, while also announcing a remuneration review that will include chief executive Julian Pemberton, whose annual pay is substantially higher than his peers.

At the company’s annual general meeting today, Mr Burston said he intended to retire from the helm as soon as a suitable replacement was found.

“It has been a pleasure serving on the NRW board since its listing in 2007 but after eight years as chairman it is the right time for a transition,” he said.

Mr Burston also said the board was implementing a process of ‘refurbishment and renewal’, hinting at further cost cutting to withstand the current difficult market for local contractors.

He will be leaving after non-executive director John Cooper, who has previously announced his resignation for personal reasons.

He also announced the board was negotiating a revised salary package with Mr Pemberton, who was paid a base salary of $1.31 million in the last financial year; details of the new pay structure have yet to be finalised.

That made him Western Australia’s highest paid contractor CEO in the 2015 financial year, according to a survey of mining and civil contractors by Business News.

The next highest-paid CEO in the sector is RCR Tomlinson boss Paul Dalgleish, whose pay increased to $1 million in FY15.

To put that in perspective, RCR's market cap is currently $333 million, about 10 times bigger than for NRW.

Some of the big mining services companies have already announced pay cuts.

Former Macmahon Holdings chief Ross Carroll was paid about $1.07 million in FY14, while his successor Sybrandt Van Dyk, who entered the role earlier this year, agreed to an annual salary of $585,000.

Ausdrill boss Ron G Sayers took a 10 per cent pay cut from July 1 this year, reducing his base pay to $761,299.

Monadelphous Group CEO Rob Velletri’s base salary increased from $898,589 in FY14 to $964,275 in FY15, while Mineral Resources chief Christopher Ellison’s base annual salary was relatively unchanged at $945,000 in FY15.

Monadelphous has a market cap of $618 million while MinRes is valued at $937 million.

NRW shares closed 3.8 per cent higher to 13.5 cents each.