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Helia Group (HLI) – Elephant in the Room

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    Helia Group (HLI) – Elephant in the Room

    As a shareholder in HLI, I read with interest your report on Wednesday regarding the latest news on the HLI share price crash. I note with interest that you avoided the Elephant in the Room by neglecting to point out that the CEO, Pauline Blight-Johnston, offloaded 393,000 shares valued at $840,221 on the 14th, 17th and 18th March - just days before the news broke that CBA was involved with talks with an alternative services provider. As far as I'm concerned, this has to be a classic case of Insider Trading! Whilst I have always been aware that the CBA could change providers I certainly didn't have any sensitive information that would have prompted me to sell my shares in advance of this news as Ms Blight-Johnston did. If this is not Insider Trading then it's certainly not a good look. Can you please enlighten me Brian Cooper

    Answer

    Hi Brian,

    The insider selling in mortgage insurance business HLI does look poor, and we would imagine/hope this will get investigated.

    • According to company disclosures, CEO Blight-Johnston sold 149,718 shares in tranches between March 14 and 18. Since late February, she has sold a total of shares worth almost $2.7 million, according to share market filings. The story got a mention in the AFR on Monday but Helia declined to comment on Blight-Johnston’s sell down.

    The only offset to it, is that the decision by CBA to engage exclusively with another party came a bit from left field, insofar as the decision was not expected until nearer December.  That said, we find it very hard to believe that the CEO did have a good handle on the ‘vibe’ of negotiations.

    It reminds us of Alan Joyce selling more than 90% of his shares in QAN while he was CEO five weeks after the ACCC had twice requested documents as part of an investigation, information which had not been made public.

    In short, it smells.

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    Helia Group Ltd (HLI)
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