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James Hardie's Macdonald Stands Aside for Regulator's Inquiry

Sept. 28 (Bloomberg) -- James Hardie Industries NV said Chief Executive Officer Peter Macdonald will stand aside during a probe by Australia's securities regulator into allegations he misled investors about the cost of compensating people sickened by asbestos contained in the company's products.

The Australian Securities & Investment Commission is investigating James Hardie after a New South Wales state government inquiry alleged the company broke the law in 2001 when it set up a charitable fund to compensate suffers of asbestos related diseases.

Unions called on Macdonald to quit when the report was released last week.

The inquiry, headed by former Federal Court judge David Jackson, found at least A$1.5 billion was needed to meet all future asbestos compensation claims. James Hardie set aside A$293 million to meet claims.

Macdonald was appointed chief executive in November 1999, six years after joining the company. He rose from being general manager of the company's Australian fiber cement business to president of the U.S. operation to chief operating officer to chief executive.

James Hardie registered in the Netherlands in 2001, after transferring its asbestos liabilities to the Medical Research and Compensation Fund. It retained its corporate headquarters in Sydney and its main listing on the Australian Stock Exchange.

James Hardie started using asbestos in Australia in the 1920s. It started to phase out blue asbestos in 1968, and all products were asbestos-free by 1986. The fibrous mineral has been linked to lung cancer and mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer affecting the chest or abdomen.

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Mesothelioma is an aggressive cancer of the chest cavity that kills about 2000 people a year in the United States. Seventy to eighty percent of patients with this rare cancer have had exposure to asbestos. It has also been proposed that simian virus 40 (SV40), a contaminant in some polio vaccines administered in the 1950’s and 1960’s, might be a cause.