Australia's WiseTech shares jump after CEO White takes on new role
Updates with details and background throughout
By Rishav Chatterjee
Oct 25 (Reuters) -Shares of star Australian software maker WiseTech Global WTC.AX sky-rocketed on Friday after its billionaire founder and CEO Richard White shifted to a consulting role at the firm after a series of damaging allegations about his personal life.
The company's stock gained as much as 22% to A$121.33 at its open in Sydney, set for its strongest trading session since August 2021, recouping nearly all of its losses from this week.
White would quit as CEO but take a full-time consulting role, while finance chief Andrew Cartledge would become interim CEO, the company said after the close of trading a day earlier.
WiseTech has said its board is reviewing wide-ranging allegations about White's personal life which were detailed in media reports this month in relation to a civil court dispute which has since settled. White, the company's biggest shareholder, is one of Australia's wealthiest people.
The logistics software company on Thursday cited White as saying it had been "a challenging time for me personally, my family and close friends, and for the company that I have built and truly love".
Roy van Keulen, analyst at Morningstar, said while White was no longer CEO, investors would benefit from him continuing to focus on product and business development in his new role.
"Given our assessment of WiseTech as a product-led company, we consider White's continued involvement in this area of the business to be a positive outcome for shareholders," said van Keulen.
Since the media reports about White began this month, about A$7.7 billion ($5.1 billion) has been wiped from the company's market capitalisation which stood at A$39 billion after Friday's rally.
Analysts at Citi upgraded the stock to "buy" from a "neutral" rating saying the leadership transition likely addresses concerns without impacting the firm's near term growth.
"We do not think the near-term earnings outlook will be impacted by the change and also see industry freight volumes as a tailwind for FY25 growth," Citi said.
($1 = 1.5076 Australian dollars)
Reporting by Rishav Chatterjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona, Byron Kaye and Sonali Paul
免责声明: XM Group仅提供在线交易平台的执行服务和访问权限，并允许个人查看和/或使用网站或网站所提供的内容，但无意进行任何更改或扩展，也不会更改或扩展其服务和访问权限。所有访问和使用权限，将受下列条款与条例约束：(i) 条款与条例；(ii) 风险提示；以及(iii) 完整免责声明。请注意，网站所提供的所有讯息，仅限一般资讯用途。此外，XM所有在线交易平台的内容并不构成，也不能被用于任何未经授权的金融市场交易邀约和/或邀请。金融市场交易对于您的投资资本含有重大风险。
所有在线交易平台所发布的资料，仅适用于教育/资讯类用途，不包含也不应被视为用于金融、投资税或交易相关咨询和建议，或是交易价格纪录，或是任何金融商品或非应邀途径的金融相关优惠的交易邀约或邀请。
本网站上由XM和第三方供应商所提供的所有内容，包括意见、新闻、研究、分析、价格、其他资讯和第三方网站链接，皆保持不变，并作为一般市场评论所提供，而非投资性建议。所有在线交易平台所发布的资料，仅适用于教育/资讯类用途，不包含也不应被视为适用于金融、投资税或交易相关咨询和建议，或是交易价格纪录，或是任何金融商品或非应邀途径的金融相关优惠的交易邀约或邀请。请确保您已阅读并完全理解，XM非独立投资研究提示和风险提示相关资讯，更多详情请点击 这里。
