Fortescue’s former CEO Fiona Hick receives huge payout, while dividend shaved as green energy costs mount

Fortescue’s former chief executive and chief financial officer were given golden handshakes combined worth nearly $2.5m after leaving the business in quick succession last year.

Fiona Hick abruptly resigned from her post as Fortescue’s chief executive on August 28 2023 after six months in the role. She was followed by Christine Morris, who spent just three months as chief financial officer before her departure was announced three days after Ms Hick’s.

Ms Hick received a “termination payment” of $2.09m, while Ms Morris netted $381,840.

“Ms Hick was paid an amount equivalent to six months’ pay, noting the company elected to impose Ms Hick’s post-employment restraint,” Fortescue said.

Ms Morris received $287,500 “in lieu of her three month notice period” and a sum of $94,340 “to assist with relocation to the United States of America”.

On Ms Hick’s departure, Andrew Forrest has said people at his Fortescue need to “get on the bus or get off the bus” in regards to his green energy ambitions. He has also said that Ms Morris was “lucky” to have even been appointed CFO and “scraped” through the hiring process.

Ms Morris fired back on LinkedIn by saying the Fortescue role was not what she expected and the decision to leave was right “considering the circumstances”.

Mr Forrest’s comments drew ire from other female business leaders, and the departures of Ms Hicks and Ms Morris have headlined a laundry list of senior departures from Fortescue’s ranks over the past year.

The payouts to the duo were revealed in Fortescue’s accounts for the 2024 financial year released on Wednesday.

Fortescue’s full-year profit has ticked up but Mr Forrest’s flagship company is venturing into the new financial year with a renewable energy division haemorrhaging nearly $1 billion annually in a climate of weaker iron ore prices.

WA’s number three iron ore producer has also cut its final dividend from $1 per share to 89¢.

Fortescue posted a net profit after tax of $US5.7 billion ($8.4b) for the 2024 financial year, an increase of 18 per cent from the prior period.

But stripping away impairments made to its struggling Iron Bridge magnetite project during the 2023 financial year the profit rise was actually 3 per cent on a like-for-like basis.

FY2024 underlying earnings for the renewable energy business — Fortescue Energy — were in the red to the tune of $US659 million ($970m). It lost $US617m ($909m) in FY2023.

Fortescue Energy costs are set to rise further during the current financial year with the “net operating expenditure” and capital expenditure set to reach a combined figure of approximately $US1.2b.

Last month Fortescue chopped about 700 of its white collar workforce, predominately based in Perth, and Mr Forrest conceded the company will not meet its lofty target to produce 15 million tonnes of green hydrogen by 2030 but will get there “eventually”.

More to come . . .