WiseTech Global shareholder Aware Super, Sydney, one of Australia’s largest superannuation funds, is pushing for transparency in the company’s plans after founder Richard White stepped down as chief executive officer amid damaging allegations about his behavior with women.
Shares in the freight-software company rebounded last week after White shifted to a different role in a bid to diffuse the growing fallout from the claims. Chief Financial Officer Andrew Cartledge was appointed interim CEO and the company said it would soon search for a permanent replacement.
“If you think about where WiseTech is at at the moment, with Richard taking on a different role and them now thinking through the CEO succession, planning is critical,” Aware Super CEO Deanne Stewart said on the sidelines of an Australian Financial Review conference in Sydney. “And how that will work alongside Richard’s role is yet to be defined.”
Aware Super owns just over 1% of WiseTech, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, placing the A$180 billion ($119 billion) fund among its top 10 shareholders. While divestment wasn’t being considered, Aware met with the company and wanted to understand more about the review that WiseTech was undertaking around some of the allegations, said Stewart.
“And we would hope that they are transparent with those findings,” she said.
A spokesperson for WiseTech referred to its Oct. 24 statement, in which the company said it would update investors on the outcome of its review into matters raised in recent media coverage.
Australia’s trillion-dollar super funds industry is one of the top investors in the country’s listed companies. The biggest fund, the $228 billion AustralianSuper, Melbourne, the fourth-largest shareholder in WiseTech, said it had engaged “extensively” with the board and management and remained a long-term investor in the company.
