One of the hardest hit sectors from the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic has been travel, so perhaps it’s not much of a surprise bosses of companies in the sector are taking advantage of the current market recovery to offload a few shares.
But deals from the chief executives of train ticketing website Trainline (TRN) and budget airline Wizz Air (WIZZ) are nonetheless notable, particularly in the case of the former.
TRAINLINE CEO POCKETS £3.2 MILLION
A year after Trainline went public, chief executive Clare Gilmartin took advantage of the IPO lockup expiring to sell 800,000 shares in the business at 400p each, netting a total of £3.2 million.
Trainline management had been unable to sell any shares for 12 months from the end of June 2019, when the company listed. Gilmartin’s stake in the business has now dropped from 1.8% to around 1.6%.
The company’s shares have been volatile since listing at 350p, originally rising to the 500p mark by the end of 2019 before tumbling all the way down to a low just over 200p in the market selloff in March.
The shares have staged a recovery since, rising to around 396p, with the company confident it can withstand an extended downturn in passenger demand.
But passenger numbers still remain subdued, with the Government’s push to get workers back into offices has seemingly failed to have the desired impact as more businesses continue to allow employees to work from home for the foreseeable future.
While Gilmartin’s stake in the company hasn’t changed significantly, the share sale will do little to reassure investors given the challenges Trainline still faces.
WIZZ AIR CHIEF SELLS DOWN
Through an associated legal entity, Vaxco Holdings, Wizz Air chief executive Jozsef Varadi sold 75,000 shares in the low cost airline at a price of £37.55 each, pocketing a cool £2.8 million.
The sale comes as Wizz Air’s share price continues to recover the market selloff, now scaling higher than it was a year ago, with the Hungarian airline seemingly better placed than some of its rivals amid the pandemic.
The company has a stronger cash position than most of its rivals, while its routes to mainly Central and Eastern Europe have been less affected by the quarantine measures in places like Spain which have impacted the routes of its London listed peers.
Varadi’s sale is interesting, particularly as the company will most likely face further challenges again with lower demand going into winter and the potential for more quarantine measures and possibly travel banks.
But the sale represents only a very small portion of his overall stake, and the company still plans to pursue its growth strategy, with Varadi having previously told Hungarian media that there will be ‘available positions on the market once the weak companies disappear’.
