Alan Joyce Sells Qantas Shares
When a company buys back its own shares, it helps keep the price up. Qantas did this on May 31 by buying over 4.25 million shares before Joyce's selling spree. Even on the day of Joyce's sales, the company bought 1.85 million shares. Qantas has kept buying shares every day since then.
On Thursday, lots of people bought and sold shares of Qantas. Bloomberg says they traded 14.9 million shares. The boss of Qantas, Joyce, sold more than 16% of all those shares. Since then, the share price has gone down about 8%.
A CEO selling personal shares in a buyback isn't uncommon. Don Meij, CEO of Domino's, did it in 2018 and it caused a stir. The ASX noticed. Joyce won't be the first to do it.
Chairman Richard Goyder okayed Joyce's sales. Goyder helped Joyce get Qantas stock through a pay plan, and shareholders said it was alright.
Joyce only bought Qantas stock once, spending $30,000 in 2020.
In August, the outgoing CEO will get 2.5 million shares through an equity incentive program. The others will have a three-year vesting schedule. After November, Joyce won't have to disclose what he does with those shares anymore.
The mega-share sale costs $17 million and it's special because it's the last glimpse of the CEO's thoughts on Qantas share prices. The CEO is selling right now.
