'Unless he lied to the Board, who must have approved the sale, I can't see what the guy has done wrong. '
Scenario - GW informs board at meeting in June or July that he intends to sale stock to meet tax payment on new options granted in July.
But he does not make the sale.
AGM, 25th October GW confirms the view that guidance is unchanged and is still current which Mr Market believes show that dose sales are running at double digits - technically anywhere between 10 and 99%, although it was considered to mean between 10 and 20%. The previews year came in at 16.4%.
So at the end of October SRX had 2/3rds of the dose sales data for the half year, and would have a very clear picture of likely dose growth for the period.
The very next day he offloads 75k shares for abut $2m.
On the 28th November the R&D presentation was given, and still no mention of dose sales being very soft.
Two week later a Trading Update, notifying the market that dose growth was likely to be between 0 and 4%. An awful lot changed in the 5 weeks between the AGM and the trading update.
The question is, did he know that dose sales were running at a level such that 10% growth was likely out of reach at the time he sold the shares?
The claim is that he did indeed have this information. It would appear that an insider notified ASX of same.
If he knew that the half year dose sales would fall at least 10% short of the double digits as advised to the market, the he would not be allowed to trade,as it would be considered inside trading. To go from 10-20% growth, to 0-4% growth would be considered inside trading.
Secondly, and probably of more concern to the Board, why did they sign off on the guidance at the AGM? Did GW deceive the board, or were they complicit in the arrangement to deceive the market?
Based on the dose numbers, month by month, it may be most difficult to deal with these questions. GW is probably toast anyway, so he may take one for the team and allow the Board to come out clean.
The problem the legal team have is that they don't know what ASX and ASIC have. These folks do not generally take too much notice of a general SH making a complaint as there would be thousands of these every month. It is someone who is being listened to, and clearly SRX are very concerned. My view is that the tip off is good, and GW is in serious trouble.
Secondly the move may embolden other insiders, who would prefer GW to be gone, to add fuel to the very large existing bonfire.
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