Temple & Webster Group Ltd (ASX: TPW) CEO and managing director Mark Coulter just sold $36.4 million in shares.
A mandatory disclosure lodged with the ASX last Thursday revealed that Coulter disposed of 1.6 million shares on Wednesday.
There were three stages to this transaction.
Coulter sold 1.2 million Temple & Webster shares owned directly for $22.75 apiece.
He also acquired 1.2 million shares directly after exercising an option to buy them for 73.71 cents per share.
He also reported the sale of a further 800,000 Temple & Webster shares held indirectly in a unit trust of which he is a 50% beneficiary.
The other 50% beneficiary is fellow co-founder, Conrad Yiu, a non-executive director and deputy chair of the board.
Coulter and Yiu sold their Temple & Webster shares for $22.75 apiece via an on-market crossing.
An on-market crossing is a way of transferring or selling shares directly between two parties.
A broker sells the shares directly to another party for an agreed price, rather than on the open market, where a large block sale like this could impact the share price. The transaction is still processed via the ASX.
The transaction came about a week after Temple & Webster released its FY25 report.
Coulter and Yiu missed out on the amazing share price surge that occurred after the online furniture retailer released its FY25 results.
On 14 August, Temple & Webster reported a 533% lift in net profit to $11.3 million for the financial year, up from $1.8 million in FY24.
Investors responded by sending the Temple & Webster share price to a new record high of $29.06, up 11.5%.
The Temple & Webster share price then settled and ended the day up 8.75% at $28.35.
This was followed by a dramatic 16.4% decline over two days, likely the result of investors taking profits on the ASX 200 retail share.
On the day that Coulter and Yiu sold their shares, the Temple & Webster share price closed at $23.23.
Image source: Getty Images
What did Coulter say?
The size of Coulter's transaction prompted Temple & Webster to issue a statement to the market.
This is common practice, but not a requirement like the mandatory 'change of director's interest notices' are.
In the statement, Coulter explained:
Over the last 10 years, the vast majority of my remuneration as CEO has been paid in equity, and after this sale, I still retain a
very material interest in the Company.I have no intention to sell any more shares in the mid-term and remain fully committed to leading Temple & Webster and executing our long-term strategy and vision.
The company pointed out that Coulter retained approximately 83% of his total Temple & Webster shareholding.
This equates to approximately 7.8 million shares and options.
In Yiu's mandatory disclosure, we see that Yiu retains just over 1.92 million Temple & Webster shares.
'Tis the season for C-suite sales
It's common to see CEOs and other C-suite executives trading shares in the companies they own or run shortly after financial reports.
Management needs to be cautious about when their staff buy or sell shares in the companies they own or run.
Selling shortly after a major report is released is generally considered safer, as the market is fully informed of what's happening in the business at that time, so it reduces the risk of accusations that they acted on non-public, insider information.
So, this is the season for some big trades among ASX 200 execs.
Temple & Webster share price snapshot
Temple & Webster has been a stand-out performer in the ASX 200 consumer discretionary sector in recent times.
Over FY25, Temple & Webster recorded the most share price growth of any of its sector peers at 127%.
The Temple & Webster share price is up 200% over the past five years.
Current tailwinds for this ASX 200 retail share include falling interest rates, a retail sales surge and rebounding household spending.
