WiseTech Global shares were placed in a trading halt on Thursday morning at the logistic company’s request amid undisclosed governance concerns.
Trade is not expected to resume until at least Monday, February 24. An update on the review was expected when the company reports on Wednesday.
“The trading halt is requested to enable the Company to be in a position to provide an update on current Board discussions relating to matters of governance,” WiseTech said in a statement to the ASX.
The halt comes after fresh allegations of inappropriate conduct against founder and former CEO Richard White emerged last week, with a supplier and employee both lodging complaints.
Last Monday the WiseTech board said the complaints “are being considered in the ongoing Board Review”.
“WiseTech has received two confidential complaints, from an employee and a supplier to the company, making allegations in relation to the [White],” the company said in its market statement.
Last October, nearly 30 years after founding the $41 billion company, White resigned as WiseTech CEO and stepped down from the Tech Council of Australia board, amid allegations of inappropriate behaviour towards women following a legal battle with a former lover.
He was cleared of wrongdoing last year following a legal and accounting review into his behaviour by Herbert Smith Freehills, Seyfarth Shaw and McGrathNicol, which found “no evidence” of policy breaches.
The review examined five key allegations against the billionaire, including a failure disclose to the board several “close personal relationships” at work, misuse of company funds and claims of bullying, harassment and intimidation by former director Christine Holman, who resigned in 2019.
The board said at the time that “Seyfarth Shaw found that White has a direct approach and that from time to time is involved in robust and challenging discussions. This is generally consistent with the process of ‘creative abrasion’, which was widely acknowledged in the Review to create significant value for the organisation”.
It added that “However, there is the capacity for managers to find this uncomfortable and confronting, particularly in group settings.”
The billionaire is also facing legal action after a former employee lodged Federal Court proceedings, alleging breaches of the general protections of the Fair Work Act.
White, and his wife, Zena Nasser, and his private investment firm, RealWise Management, are respondents in the case.
She alleges that in return for sex, she received financial support and visa support.
White says their relationship was consensual, denies the allegations and denies the woman worked for him or RealWise.
When White left as CEO last year, the logistics software business said he’d return in new full-time, 10-year consulting role, on the same $1 million salary he was paid as chief executive.
But last week the company said it had yet to finalise an agreement about the new role, which “was created at the request of Richard White”, adding that “in the meantime, both the company and Mr White have been operating broadly in accordance with what was announced”.
There have been several reports of relationships gone wrong involving White, including a woman in her 30s who claimed she had an “advice for sex” relationship with the billionaire in 2024e but it ended when his now-wife intervened.
Others alleged that the WiseTech founder had conversations with several female entrepreneurs on social media and elsewhere, and used suggestive or crude language. He was labelled “the LinkedIn lecher” by one of the women.
Other disputes were settled confidentially.
Earlier this year White acquired WiseTech director Maree Isaacs’ 8.17% stake in RealWise Holdings, which owns more than a third of the WiseTech. He cofounded WiseTech with her in 1994.
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