WiseTech boss Richard White in $41m share sale
WiseTech Global CEO Richard White has sold shares worth $41.3m but insists he remains committed to the company.
WiseTech Global chief executive Richard White has sold shares worth $41.3m, but says he remains committed to the logistics software provider for the long term.
Mr White’s RealWise Holdings sold 2.245 million shares at $18.40 each, comprising a 0.76 per cent stake in the firm he founded, WiseTech said in filings to the Australian Securities Exchange.
The executive still controls 151 million shares comprising 46.9 per cent of the company’s issued share capital directly or through RealWise.
“Since WiseTech’s listing on the ASX in 2016, I have released shares only once previously, in December 2017, to facilitate liquidity when WiseTech entered the ASX 200. Now, I have released this small amount of my shareholding via RealWise in June to accommodate year-end personal financial commitments,” Mr White said in a letter to WiseTech’s board.
“I remain a proud, long-term shareholder with approximately 46.9 per cent control and, as founder and CEO, deeply committed to WiseTech and its long-term growth strategy.
“I reiterate that I intend to remain a substantial shareholder for the very long-term and remain, as ever, firmly committed to WiseTech. I am confident of WiseTech Global’s long-term potential and am determined to drive that potential as far and as swiftly as possible.”
Mr White, a former guitar technician for AC/DC, decided to start a software business after consulting for freight-forwarding companies. Wisetech provides cloud-based software for the logistics industry, giving freight forwarders a single platform to manage the movement of goods from start to finish. It floated on the ASX in 2016 at $4 per share.
The company is still worth many multiples of its valuation when it listed in 2016 but suffered from short-seller attacks, in late 2019, which wiped off more than $2bn of value in just one week.
Short-seller J Capital Research savaged its core software, CargoWiseOne, in reports that claimed WiseTech had been making acquisitions to inflate its growth. The company also saw almost 30 per cent of its valuation evaporate in February 2020 as the impacts of the coronavirus epidemic triggered a downgrade.
WiseTech shares were worth $38.80 in September 2019 and were still valued at $29.44 in February before the coronavirus pandemic hammered global share markets and logistics.
The stock fell as low as $9.97 and is still 15 per cent down for 2020. On Tuesday WiseTech Global’s shares fell 1.7 per cent to $19.46.
Additional reporting: Dow Jones Newswires
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