Coles directors not putting their money where their mouths are

Coles Chairman, Rick Allert, reiterated earlier comments at Coles’s AGM yesterday that the Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts’s offer of $15.25 per Coles share “substantially undervalued” the company.

The Coles board was well within its rights to reject the bid without putting it to shareholders if it believes the offer does not offer fair value for shareholders. Notwithstanding the recent performance hurdle embarrassment and Dawn Robertson’s obscenely generous employment contract, the Coles directors aren’t dummies – among them are a former boss of leading investment bank UBS (Bill Gurry); a former McKinsey consultant (Patti Akopiantz); and one of Australia’s leading liquidators (Tony Hodgson).

Given their outstanding resumes, and the public statement that Coles is worth “substantially” more than $15.25 per share, it would be logical to think that Coles directors would have spent last year feverishly buying Coles shares. Especially since Coles was trading at around $10.50 for most of the year. However, looking at the table below, it seems that the Coles directors weren’t so willing to put their own hard-earned on the line:

Seven of the eight Coles directors did not buy one single share last year. Martin Myer was the exception; however, he only bought 537 shares.

Despite collecting more than $500,000 from Coles (and another $500,000 from AXA), Rick Allert didn’t buy any Coles shares when they were trading at $10, but was quite willing to tell shareholders that those very same shares were worth substantially more than $15.25.

Do as I say, not as I do, huh Rick.