Fletcher chief cashes in $2.6 million in shares

Fletcher Building chief executive Ralph Waters has pocketed $2.6 million after selling close to a quarter of his shares in the building materials manufacturer.

Cashing in on the company's good performance during his tenure, Waters - an Australian who took the reins in June 2001 - sold 350,000 shares for around $7.56 each to meet an "existing financial commitment", the company said yesterday.

He is left with a stake worth just under $8 million, and said he did not expect to sell more Fletcher Building shares while he remained in the job.

Before last Friday's sale Waters was sitting on a stake of about $10.6 million after expanding his holding several times in the past 15 months. In September last year, Waters exercised an option to buy 1 million shares for $2.3 million, some way below the $5.61 share market price at the time.

Two months later, he showed his confidence in the company by paying $50,944 for 9417 shares and on April 6 this year paid $58,854 for a further 8542 shares.

Both transactions were in line with the market price at the time.

The transactions were disclosed in the company's annual report in September, which also showed he was paid a salary of $2.2 million in the year to June.

Since taking over at Fletcher Building, Waters has turned a $272 million annual loss into a $330 million profit.

The company is now New Zealand's fifth-largest listed company, up from eighteenth when he arrived. To align management incentives with shareholders, Waters introduced a scheme requiring him and his top 50 managers to invest half of their annual incentive pay in Fletcher Building shares until their holdings were equal to their base salaries.

Regulatory disclosures in the annual report showed no director had sold shares in the past year, but all had increased their stakes.

Waters told the Business Herald last year that he believed Fletcher Building executives had spent more of their own money in their own company than any comparable firm in New Zealand.

Shares in Fletcher Building closed down 15c at $7.55 yesterday. They have traded at between $8.42 and $5.76 in the past year.