WTF !!! CALTEX Boss $14m Payday..No Wonder Petrol is Expensive!!!

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"The boss of oil refiner and fuel distributor Caltex earned a motza in 2015 as profits surged following the closure of the Kurnell refinery, which saw hundreds of jobs axed.

It also followed swelling profit margins as the price of oil fell.

Julian Segal joined the ranks of the highest-paid bosses in the country thanks to bonuses and the payout of Caltex shares, which lifted his remuneration to $13.86 million - a multiple of several times his base salary of $2.18 million. In 2014 his payout was $5 million.
"Our priority now is growth," Caltex CEO Julian Segal says.

He wasn't alone, with the company's chief financial officer, Simon Hepworth, pocketing $3.95 million, well above his base salary of $788,647.

The company's largesse was shared among several of the company's senior executives, with another six officials receiving $1 million-plus payments.

A large part of the lift in senior executives' salaries was the granting of Caltex shares accumulated over the past several years amid rising shareholder returns.

Caltex closed its Kurnell refinery in 2014, with the loss of several hundred jobs, as it converted the site into an oil import terminal. The Kurnell closure hit other operators nearby, for example forcing AGL to close an LPG unit that used fuel from the refinery.

Mr Segal said employees at Kurnell opted to stay with the company as it shut down the refinery, unlike some competitors whose employees quit ahead of the completion of refinery shutdowns, which made the shutdown more difficult.

Additionally Caltex offered $8,000 of retraining to affected employees, with a large number deciding to retire. As a result, 100 or fewer of those working at Kurnell lost their jobs with the refinery closure.

Caltex has begin to dismantle the refinery and from late next year it will commence remediation of the site. It has set aside $270 million for the clean-up, which includes a contingency "for the unknown," Mr Hepworth said. "All financial liabilities have been covered. this is not a site we are abandoning."

The lift in bonuses paid to senior executives followed a lift in the 2015 net profit to $522 million in 2015, from just $20 million a year earlier. Revenue fell to $20 billion from $23.9 billion a year earlier, due to the decline in the oil price.

In 2015, Caltex said its underlying earnings, as measured by the replacement cost operating profit, rose to $977 million in 2015 from $795 million a year earlier. After taking into account taqx and extraordinary items, the profit stood at $628 million for 2015, up from $493 million a year earlier.

Caltex said its total fuel sales fell to 16.1 billion litres in 2015 from 16.8 billion litres a year earlier, reflecting both competitive pressures along with the winding up of one-off lifts to demand which it enjoyed from the building of gas-export plants in Queensland and also demand from the search for the missing MH370 aircraft in the Indian Ocean.

Recent contract wins are likely to recoup those volume losses, it said.

The surge in earnings helped Caltex to launch a $270 million off-market share buyback, along with a dividend hike, as it begins to pass on the surge in profits following the Kurnell refinery shutdown.

Caltex closed the Kurnell refinery 18 months ago. It has since been converted into a fuel import terminal.

Most analysts' focus was on the size of the share buyback, since Caltex had signalled a year ago that a share buyback was likely unless it made a large acquisition. Caltex said it expected to complete the buyback in the second quarter.

The final dividend has been raised to 70¢, which takes the annual dividend to 117¢ a share, it said, up from the 70¢ a share annual payout a year earlier.

Earnings a share hit 193¢, up from just 7¢ a year earlier."
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