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Bevan Slattery dumps more shares
Myriam RobinColumnistFor a man so sceptical he’d ever list another company (too much red tape, apparently), Bevan “Bevdawg” Slattery has gotten a lot out of his numerous ASX entanglements.
At Megaport alone, where Slattery is founder and chairman, the serial entrepreneur has since 2018 sold shares worth over $200 million, $74 million of which were jettisoned within the past 24 months.
Pushing up the total is a $12 million sale of 1 million shares the company disclosed on Friday, though he’s not its immediate beneficiary. That would be whoever lent him an undisclosed sum of money secured against 2 million shares in 2021.
Serial founder Bevan Slattery has cash to spend. Paul Harris
Slattery has extinguished part of said loan by selling the stock it was secured against. And will presumably sell 1 million more shares once the rest of it comes due in March 2024 (you’d think he could stump up cash to settle the loan instead, but given his past inclination, we don’t think he will).
Slattery still gains from these cap and collar manoeuvres but in a roundabout way from the earlier pocketing the loan. This and other sales have reduced his stake in the company from over 20 per cent in 2018 to under 5 per cent today.
Through this period, Megaport’s share price has gone as high as $21.46 and as low as $4.16 (in April this year). But it is, of late, experiencing a revival – price rises and a redundancy round delivering its inaugural net cash gain in the fourth quarter. Shareholders apparently have short-sellers to thank for that.
The stock is up 16 per cent to $11.91 in the weeks since Slattery used LinkedIn to muse how the market’s professional sceptics were by their disclosable interest in the company telling him that it “lacked focus, fiscal discipline and leadership”.
The Bevdawg, clearly, has finally reached his self-aware stage, after having in 2021 used the same network to gloat about his ardent refusal to lend stock to short-sellers. And not a moment too soon.
The hedge funds didn’t need him to make a fortune off Megaport and have since moved on. As for Slattery, his potential utility as a large lender of scrip deceases every time he files a director’s disclosure statement.
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