DENVER—The top two executives at Freeport-McMoRan Copper and & Gold Inc., which posted its biggest quarterly loss in company history last month, have decided to forgo 2008 cash incentive awards.
Richard C. Adkerson, president and chief executive, and James R. Moffett, board chairman, told the board of directors they would decline the awards, the company said Thursday in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
They were due the money under Freeport-McMoRan’s 2005 incentive plan, which allocates annual cash awards based on operating cash flow.
Freeport-McMoRan spokesman Bill Collier said there was no determination of what the bonus would have been for each executive since it was declined. The company will provide full details of executive compensation in April.
The board also terminated a long-term performance incentive plan that was implemented in 1999.
The development comes after Phoenix-based Freeport-McMoRan reported a fourth-quarter loss of nearly $14 billion as demand fell for metals used in products from construction to computers.
In 2007, Moffett received compensation worth $68.6 million, including a salary of $2.5 million, stock options worth $33.3 million and non-equity incentive plan compensation of $29.8 million.
Adkerson received compensation worth $65.3 million, including a salary of $2.1 million, stock options and restricted stock worth $55 million and non-equity incentive plan compensation of $5.4 million.
The Associated Press calculates compensation by including salary, bonuses, incentives, perks, above-market returns on deferred compensation and the estimated value of stock and options awards granted during the year. The calculations may differ from what companies report in their proxy statements, which use other measures.
Shares of Freeport-McMoRan, the world’s largest publicly traded copper producer, rose $1.07, or 3.9 percent, to close at $28.35.
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AP Energy Writer Chris Kahn contributed to this report.
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