WiseTech billionaire Richard White buys out his cofounder
WiseTech Global director and cofounder Maree Isaacs has sold her 8.17% stake in RealWise Holdings, the company that owns more than a third of ASX-listed logistics company (ASX: WTC), to the man she launched the business with 30 years ago, Richard White.
White already owns the other 92% of RealWise Holdings, meaning he now owns controls 37.4% of WiseTech, which has seen its share price recover more than 50% after falling below $80 in mid August to close at $129.50 on Monday.
The deal, which will make Isaacs a billionaire based on the company’s current valuation, was announced late on Friday.
It comes after White resigned as CEO in late August following a series of revelations about his private life, including including a now settled legal action, against a woman who alleged she’d been his lover, over $92,000 worth of furniture.
They included allegations that White had also used suggestive or crude language with several female entrepreneurs on social media and elsewhere, leading one to dub him “the LinkedIn lecher”.
White, 69, and recently a father, now has a 10-year consulting role at WiseTech, focused on product and business development, on the same $1 million salary he was paid as CEO. He will be part of today’s WiseTech investor day.
Isaacs has sold her 10.2 million shares in a deal that initially nets her $285 million, followed by quarterly payments over the next seven years based WiseTech average share price over that time.
In a statement to the ASX, Isaacs said she was “extremely grateful to Richard” for his work and leadership.
“After 30 years of helping to build WiseTech, I was keen to start to unlock and realise some of the value in the WiseTech shares I hold through RealWise Holdings Pty Limited,” she said.
“We are both excited about WiseTech’s future growth opportunities and continue to be as driven as ever on achieving WiseTech’s global growth ambitions.”
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