On March 19 HFTT Pty Ltd as trustee for the Haggarty Family Trust sold 4,430,110 ordinary Whitehaven shares at $1.7375 per share and 1,000,000 ordinary shares at $1.7500 per share.
Haggarty is the sole director of HFTT Pty Ltd. He holds greater than 20% of the voting power in Haggarty Holdings Pty Ltd which owns 100% of the voting power in HFTT Pty Ltd.
Haggarty still owns 41,918 ordinary shares directly and 20,007,869 Ordinary Shares through HFTT.
Whitehaven announced last February that Paul Flynn would step in as CEO to replace Haggarty who held the top job since October 2008 and presided over the troubled merger with Nathan Tinkler’s Aston Resources.
Flynn had been a non-executive director of Whitehaven since the merger with Aston in May 2012, prior to which he was one of Tinkler’s lieutenants as Tinkler Group Holdings MD from April 2011.
Haggarty was available to assist with the management transition, particularly in regard to Whitehaven’s key customer, joint venture and investor relationships, according to chairman mark Vaile.
Tinkler had openly criticised the performance of Whitehaven management, especially regarding the ramp-up of the Narrabri longwall mine in New South Wales.
Last June Tinkler has made a forced exit from the Australian coal industry, with his creditors forcing him to sell his 19.9% stake in Whitehaven Coal for $600 million.
Tinkler had sold 10% of his shares in the New South Wales coal mining group to various parties after announcing that Farallon Capital Management had purchased the other 9.91% of the company for $2.96 per share.
Farallon also agreed to purchase an additional 1.63% from ASM Equities Fund making it Whitehaven’s new largest shareholder.
“Whitehaven has a strong existing relationship with Farallon and we welcome its further investment in our business,” Flynn said at the time.
“We look forward to continuing to deliver on our growth plans and to creating value for all of our shareholders.”
That sale drew an end to Tinkler’s ambition to grow his Aston Resources into Australia’s leading independent coal mining empire by acquiring all of Whitehaven’s shares.
