Glencore chairman Tony Hayward to step down

The FTSE 100 company revealed the decision in its annual report. Hayward's planned departure means Glencore will be changing its chairman and chief executive in the next year or so with veteran CEO Ivan Glasenberg leaving in June.

Hayward, BP's former chief executive, joined the miner and commodities trader's board in 2011 and became chairman in 2013.

He should have left already under UK corporate governance guidelines. Big shareholders extended his term to let him guide Glencore's management succession and the response to several investigations.

"We have consulted with a number of our leading shareholders regarding this issue and they support a second and final extension to my term as chairman, which the board will recommend to shareholders," Hayward said in the annual report. "I will step down at the latest by next year's AGM. A search for my successor is under way."

Glencore also revealed the pay deal for its next CEO, Gary Nagle, who has worked at the company since 2000. He will be paid a salary of $1.85m and could earn up to $10.4m a year if he hits targets.

Glasenberg is paid $1.5m a year but gets no bonus because, with a 9% stake in the company he built, most of his earnings have been in dividends.

The company's new team will have to decide how to respond to mounting pressure from investors over the environmental impact of coal assets. On Thursday HSBC bowed to investor pressure and agreed to phase out all financing of coal by 2040.