Former CEO Elizabeth Gaines sells down $3m Fortescue holding
Former Fortescue Metals Group chief executive Elizabeth Gaines has cashed out $3m worth of the company’s long-term bonus scheme shares.
Former Fortescue Metals Group chief executive Elizabeth Gaines has cashed out $3m worth of the company’s long-term bonus scheme shares, while company disclosures indicate the company’s recently departed boss Fiona Hick was granted about $830,000 worth of shares for her term at the company.
Fortescue founder Andrew Forrest last week attributed Ms Hick’s shock departure to differences of opinion over the company’s green transition, suggesting Ms Hick and former metals finance boss Christine Morris had struggled to cope with Fortescue’s “boiler room” working environment.
Fortescue disclosures on Monday showed Ms Hick was granted almost 89 per cent of the short-term bonus shares available to the metals boss for her work at the company last financial year. She formally began work at Fortescue on February 27.
Fortescue disclosures also show Ms Gaines sold all of the 147,920 shares that vested from the company’s 2021 financial year performance rights, realising $2.95m at an average price of $19.97.
The sale represents the entirety of Ms Gaines remaining performance rights for the year’s results, with the company saying another 5243 performance rights available under the scheme had lapsed.
Ms Gaines still holds 341,294 Fortescue shares, with another 51,464 eligible for grant under the company’s 2022 long-term incentive plan.
A market notice on Monday indicates Ms Gaines was the biggest beneficiary of shares issued under the company’s incentive schemes in the wake of the company’s latest annual results.
New metals boss Dino Otranto and former deputy chief executive Julie Shuttleworth are the only other members of Fortescue’s key management personnel that have been with the company for more than a year. Mr Otranto was issued 50,409 performance rights – worth just over $1m at the price Ms Gaines cashed out.
Ms Shuttleworth, now running the company’s Gabon iron ore development operations, was granted 70,319 shares worth $1.4m.
Fortescue Energy boss Mark Hutchinson, who began working for Fortescue in August 2022, took away 56,359.
Ms Hick, who was employed by the company for six months before her shock departure, was granted 41,500 performance rights, from a possible total of 46,863 available last financial year.
Fortescue shares closed up 23c to $19.63 on Monday.