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Ex-Xtrata exec loses £420 000 bonus suit

London - Richard Elliston, the former company secretary of Xstrata, lost his bonus fight against Glencore International [JSE:GLN] when a London appeal court overturned a £420 000 award and ordered him to repay some of the money.

Elliston sued to recover an unpaid severance award after being fired when Glencore took over Xstrata in 2013, winning his case last year. Appeal judges overturned that ruling on Thursday and said he should return the £240 000 he has already received from Glencore along with about £120 000 in legal costs, a total of about £360 000.

Judge Elizabeth Gloster said Elliston wasn’t entitled to the money because he had accepted a one-time bonus of £488 000 for his work on the merger and was told he couldn’t have both.

Xstrata paid some of its executives bonuses to mark the $29bn Glencore deal weeks after its investors voted against £144m of retention payments to about 70 managers. In December 2012, Mick Davis, Xstrata’s chief executive officer, wrote to Elliston informing him about the transaction bonus, saying the merger "brought with it many hurdles along the way and has been a real test of our character."

Elizabeth Philpott, a lawyer for Elliston, declined to immediately comment when reached by phone. Glencore spokesman Charles Watenphul declined to comment.

Glencore’s acquisition of Xstrata created the world’s fourth-biggest mining company, adding coal, nickel, zinc and copper mines to Glencore’s trading empire.

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