WiseTech founder Richard White continued to quietly sell off shares

Richard White, billionaire founder of WiseTech Global, has sold more than $200 million in the software giant’s shares over the past two months at a time the company has been engulfed in turmoil over his personal life and as its board directors feuded.

That dispute came to a head this week when four independent directors including chairman Richard Dammery abruptly resigned, citing differing views on how to deal with a report into White’s behaviour that was due to be released on Wednesday.

WiseTech founder Richard White.Credit: Bloomberg

WiseTech had engaged two law firms, Herbert Smith Freehills and Seyfarth Shaw, to investigate several allegations made against White, including by an employee and a contractor.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has also taken an interest in the findings of that report, according to people briefed on the matter who asked for anonymity.

The disruption at the company, one of the country’s most successful technology groups, has sent the share price tumbling even as many major investors continue to back White. Monday’s board exodus triggered a 20 per cent plunge in WiseTech’s value and wiped $3 billion off the wealth of White, who is WiseTech’s largest shareholder.

Shares closed marginally down on Tuesday ahead of the company’s annual results presentation on Wednesday.

White told investors on December 24 that he had sold nearly 3.6 million shares between October 2 and December 20. According to the notice, RealWise, the private company White holds the shares in, owned 36.6 per cent of WiseTech, or more than 122 million shares.

But a joint investigation by the Herald, The Age and The Australian Financial Review can reveal that White has continued to sell shares over summer, and has sold around 1.87 million shares since Christmas Eve. The average share price over that period was $122, meaning White probably raised some $229 million from the sale of WiseTech shares.

White has consistently sold shares. He has told investors he sold them because there was demand from shareholders for more stock. In October, the Herald, The Age and The Australian Financial Review reported he had been selling to pay his ex-wife, whom he owes around $2 billion.

According to WiseTech’s corporate guidelines, directors and senior managers “must not deal in company securities during blackout periods”.

The policy also says that the company secretary can advise other people who “possess inside information” that the restriction applies to them too.

One of those blackout periods was from December 31 until Wednesday this week, when the company earnings results will be revealed.

A spokeswoman for White said: “Mr White obtained independent legal advice prior to undertaking the share trades.”

White resigned as chief executive and from the WiseTech board on October 24 after it emerged he had bought a $7 million property for employee and former partner Christine Kontos, paid $2 million to settle a dispute with another lover, and in 2019 had been accused by then-director Christine Holman of intimidation.

He was at the same time appointed to a new consulting role at the company with an annual salary of $1 million. He is yet to take up that role.

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