One of the stupidest things I’ve seen on the stock market in the last year is the float of Beforepay (ASX: B4P), an aggressive lender of last resort to the desperate or clownish. I won’t bother analysing the company again, because I already savaged it prior to its IPO at $3.41, in the podcast below, and then then again in this article when the share price was $2.30.
It’s worth noting that the reason I’ve been giving this company such a vicious savaging is because I personally have a problem with a company that suggests people go into debt in order to “splurge on your partner’s favourite tequila“.
Brian Hartzer Purchases BeforePay Shares On Market
The latest chapter in this sordid saga is that three Beforepay directors have purchased relatively small amounts of Beforepay shares on the open market.
Of these small purchases, the most hilarious are those by former Westpac CEO, Brian Hartzer. Brian Hartzer’s latest Appendix 3Y (which discloses changes of a director’s interest in shares) is particularly amusing.
It discloses purchases totalling just $30,564.03, at prices ranging from 37.5 cents per share to 40 cents per share. Even after these purchases, Brian Hartzer owns less than $60,000 worth of shares at the current share price of 51 cents.
For context, the Economic Research Institute suggests Hartzer made over well over $4m per year in total remuneration as CEO of Westpack from 2014 to 2019, before he left the company shortly after Westpac’s “failure to adequately monitor the accounts of a convicted child sex offender who was regularly sending money to the Philippines.”
After earning a multimillion dollar remuneration package for half a decade or more, what does Brian Hartzer’s purchase of just $30,564.03 worth of BeforePay shares, at prices some 88% below the IPO price, indicate about his conviction in the stock?
Please remember that these are personal reflections about a stock by author. I do not own shares in BeforePay or have any position in it. This article should not form the basis of an investment decision. It is an investment diary valuable only for the cognitive process it demonstrates. We do not provide financial advice, and any commentary is general in nature. Please read our disclaimer.
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