OPINION
Fairway partings
Gold Fields seems to have slipped up a bit with its annual remuneration report. This is not even because enough shareholders (over a third) voted against its implementation, which is forcing it to talk to them a bit more.
Not such a big deal, given other recent big deal talks that have given Gold Fields quite a lot of practice.
Instead, possibly in a Freudian slip, it referred to itself as “Golf Fields” when describing how it’s paying ex-CEO Chris Griffith for two years off in exchange for not looking to get more gold out of the ground (or more cheaply) for its rivals.
Out of the field for a bit, as it were. No risk of him using those nuggets to do a bit of Gold Fields clubbing.
And Griffith himself may now prefer clubs to swords after falling on one, following the group’s failed six-month saga to acquire Canada’s Yamana Gold. Further luck for company (or good dealmaking) meant it got a $300 million (now about R6 billion) break free. This, and because the rand and gold appear to prefer swinging in different directions recently, means it appears Gold Fields will be just fine.
Though it clearly does make some mistakes, all humans do, but it’s unknown if Griffith got a copy of the draft annual financial report, or if he would have caught this one:
Gold Fields 2022 annual report flub.
Perhaps the group was distracted by the getting the numbers right, understandably, and they gave a lot of them.
In fact, perhaps one or two shareholders were voting in protest of all those tables.
But, it seems, Griffith’s exit put a one-off hole of $5 million in Gold Fields cash pile in 2022, with about $3 million involved in the termination – unpaid leave as well.
The package came to three years, as they agreed he wouldn’t work his 12-month notice period. The exit package (after 20 months) despite being about twice his tenure seems fair enough, given the restraint of trade. Though one wonders about the discussions that will be had with shareholders over its deal-making. Likely, Gold Fields already has a new line, it’s avoiding big deals.
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