BHP Issued Bonus For Compensation

BHP Billiton said a bonus issue of 113,799,025 new ordinary shares in BHP Billiton PLC have been issued to shareholders on the UK section of its share register as compensation for the spinoff of BHP Steel Ltd.

Under the terms of the merger between BHP Ltd and Billiton PLC, any benefit accruing to shareholders of one part of the company must be offset with compensation to shareholders on the other side.

BHP Billiton Ltd shareholders received shares in BHP Steel when it listed earlier this month.

The bonus issue has been calculated at the rate of one new BHP Billiton PLC share for each 15.5648 shares already held with fractional entitlements rounded up or down to the nearest whole new BHP Billiton PLC share.

The new shares will rank pari passu in all respects with existing ordinary BHP Billiton PLC shares and brings the total ordinary shares on issue to 2,432,946,910.

A further issue of approximately 35.2 million shares will be made on July 29 to BHP Billiton PLC shareholders registered on the South African section of the register with a a further announcement expected on that date, the company said.

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