Date 9 December 2002 Number 61/02 BHP BILLITON ANNOUNCES APPOINTMENT OF COMPUTERSHARE LIMITED AS GLOBAL SHARE REGISTRY SERVICE PROVIDER BHP Billiton today announced the appointment of Computershare Limited as global share registry and employee share plan services provider to BHP Billiton Limited and BHP Billiton Plc, effective 3 February 2003. The global contract will be coordinated from a single point of contact based in Melbourne. Details of transition arrangements will be announced in due course. In the interim period existing contact details with current providers will remain in place. Further information can be found on our Internet site: http://www.bhpbilliton.com Australia Andrew Nairn, Investor Relations Tel: +61 3 9609 3952 Mobile: +61 408 313 259 email: Andrew.W.Nairn@bhpbilliton.com Tracey Whitehead, Media Relations Tel: +61 3 9609 4202 Mobile: +61 419 404 978 email: Tracey.Whitehead@bhpbilliton.com Jim Jones, Share Department Tel: +61 3 9609 4535 Mobile: +61 419 581 217 email: Jim.Jones@bhpbilliton.com United Kingdom Mark Lidiard, Investor & Media Relations Tel: +44 20 7747 3956 email: Mark.Lidiard@bhpbilliton.com Elizabeth Hobley, Secretariat Tel: +44 20 7747 3854 email: elizabeth.hobley@bhpbilliton.com South Africa Michael Campbell, Investor & Media Relations Tel: +27 11 376 3360 Mobile: +27 82 458 2587 email: Michael.J.Campbell@bhpbilliton.com United States Francis McAllister, Investor Relations Tel: +1 713 961 8625 Mobile: +1 713 480 3699 email: Francis.R.McAllister@bhpbilliton.com