Market watchers will be paying close attention to the trading moves of some of Australia’s largest superannuation funds that own shares in WiseTech this week, following a growing number of revelations surfacing about the personal life of founding chief executive Richard White.
Among WiseTech’s largest shareholders, according to Bloomberg data, are AustralianSuper with 2.78 per cent, the Future Fund holds 0.54 per cent, REST and Sun Super are also major shareholders, while a number of offshore pension funds also hold major positions in the stock.
Sources believe that Australian superannuation funds, which pride themselves on ethical investing, may be rethinking their position in WiseTech following the revelations that are coming to light.
Meanwhile, short sellers have started to move on the stock, with 7 per cent and 11 per cent of the stock trading involved short sellers on Thursday and Friday last week.
Mr White’s annual pay for running WiseTech is $2.7m and before shares started to crash (down 11 per cent at $108.88 in early Monday afternoon trade after diving 18 per cent to a two-month low of $100.02) the stock was trading at 40 times sales and considered expensive.
Some market observers say that the situation raises questions about whether the latest revelations will distract Mr White from his focus on the business and some believe he needs at the very least to take a leave of absence, which would further hurt the share price, and if further allegations are revealed, he probably needed to step away.
As reported by The Australian, the three-week sell-off in WiseTech shares has continued to accelerate as the board says it's reviewing allegations in the media against its chief executive.
The matters started escalating last week with the emergence of yet another spurned girlfriend and has now spread further to a third woman has made a claim about a property deal.
On Monday, WiseTech’s board in a statement to the ASX said: “The board is currently reviewing the full range of matters raised in today’s media reports and is actively seeking further information and taking external advice,” the company told the ASX.
“The board will continue to meet regularly to consider and monitor the situation, and keep the market updated in line with its continuous disclosure obligations.
“It is conscious of the potential impacts on the Company and will carefully evaluate all relevant factors in its assessment.”
Mr White, a former guitar technician for ACDC, started WiseTech 30 years ago and built it into a $41bn company.
He owns 35 per cent of the company, according to Bloomberg, and has been trading his position over time.
Details of his personal life started to emerge after a case started running in the Federal Court since the start of the month surrounding his moves to bankrupt his former lover Linda Rogan.
Market experts believe that the board’s review will extend to whether Mr White used the Wise Tech company money for any matters brought to light through allegations from women.
Cuscal plans to list with $479.1m market value, raising $336.8m
Payments infrastructure company Cuscal could be the ASX’s largest initial public offering of the year should it proceed as planned.
Aristocratic Vesteys selling out of prestige Adelaide Hills winery
The aristocratic Vestey family, once the second richest in the UK after the royal family, is selling its Australian wine interests including a leading Adelaide Hills winery.