As predicted, 'AFR' will have an article in tomorrow's print edition re QAN and Mr Joyce's mammoth share sale.

Joe Aston may be on leave as Mark Stefano is the author.

An extract:

Rear Window

Alan Joyce sold shares into the Qantas buyback

Mark Di StefanoReporter

Jun 8, 2023 – 8.00pm

This week, our sister Street Talk column broke the news that Qantas CEO Alan Joyce had sold $17 million worth of shares to fund the purchase of an apartment overlooking Sydney Harbour. Recent disclosures paint a fuller picture of Joyce’s great Qantas divestment.

Outgoing Qantas CEO Alan Joyce. Rhett Wyman

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A company buying back shares supports a price from where it would be otherwise. On May 31 – the day before Joyce flooded into the market on his selling spree – Qantas bought more than 4.25 million of its own shares. The day of Joyce’s sales, the company acquired another 1.85 million. It has continued buying each trading day.

Last Thursday, Qantas’ share volume traded by all participants in the market was 14.9 million, according to Bloomberg. Joyce’s share sell-down accounted for more than 16 per cent of the company’s trading volume that day. The company’s share price has fallen about 8 per cent since that day.

Joyce certainly won’t be the first CEO to sell personal shares into a company stock buyback. This column has highlighted Domino’s Pizza CEO Don Meij doing just that in 2018, flaring the attention of the ASX.

Joyce’s sales had the approval of chairman Richard Goyder. Of course, Goyder has been pivotal in Joyce’s accumulation of Qantas stock, through the company’s remuneration scheme, later approved by shareholders.

In fact, Joyce has only once put his own hand in his pocket to buy Qantas stock, purchasing the maximum $30,000 worth of shares during the company’s 2020 share purchase plan.