looking better, page-36

a director buys us$100k bhp shares Chips are up in a very good year
Strictly Private
Christopher Webb
September 6, 2005

THANKS to the China boom, one Charles Waterhouse Goodyear IV is getting richer by the week. He's just collected another dollop of scrip that flowed from BHP Billiton's generous incentive scheme, and there's plenty more on the horizon.

When Goodyear was appointed to the board late in 2001, his shareholding in the mining outfit was worth about $757,000.

Now, mostly thanks to the handing-over of scrip under an assortment of incentive performance shares and deferred share issues, Goodyear now has 871,650 shares against his name.

At yesterday's $20.46 closing price, his little nest egg was worth close to $18 million.

.......... Meanwhile, Carlos Cordeiro has also acquired some BHP shares, but he had to venture out onto the open market for his stake.

For the BHP director, it has been a long road to buy some shares, which, by the way, is a requirement when someone is appointed to the board. Cordeiro, a former Goldman Sachs heavy, was appointed to the BHP board with effect from February 3.

But at the time he had — in company with the rest of his new boardroom colleagues — some price-sensitive information: BHP's plan to bid for WMC Resources.

More recently, he had unpublished price-sensitive information relating to the company's earnings results.

The results were released on August 24.

Cordeiro has now bought some shares, and not just the 1000 share minimum required under the articles of association.

He put 100 grand's worth of US dollars into the stock the other day, buying, effectively, 6550 shares for around the $A20.05 mark each.

Cordeiro has now been reappointed to the board, and already he's marginally ahead of the share price game.