BHP Billiton Bonus For Africa

BHP Billiton said a bonus issue of 35.2 million new ordinary shares in BHP Billiton Plc have been issued to shareholders in the South African section of its share register as compensation for the spin-off 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, while the UK section of the share register had 113.8 million shares issued as compensation last week.

"As a matter of record, BHP Billiton confirms that a total of 148.999 million BHP Billiton Plc shares were issued to BHP Billiton Plc shareholders to reflect the value distributed to BHP Billiton Ltd shareholders as a result of the demerger of BHP Steel," it said.

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