{"id":828150,"date":"2025-06-13T11:51:01","date_gmt":"2025-06-13T09:51:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=828150"},"modified":"2025-06-13T11:51:06","modified_gmt":"2025-06-13T09:51:06","slug":"woolworths-ceo-cashes-in-r38-million-worth-of-shares","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/828150\/woolworths-ceo-cashes-in-r38-million-worth-of-shares\/","title":{"rendered":"Woolworths CEO cashes in R38 million worth of shares"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Roy Bagattini, the CEO of Woolworths, has sold 700,000 shares worth just over R38 million in three separate transactions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a SENS announcement, Woolworths said that Bagattini engaged in several on-market transactions where he sold millions of shares as part of a portfolio rebalancing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This included the sale of 420,000 shares for R23 million on 10 June, followed by 112,000 shares for R6 million on 11 June and 168,000 shares for R9 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sale of these 700,000 shares pocketed Bagattini R38 million in cash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bagattini joined the group as CEO in February 2020. Before this, he was the President of the Americas for Levi Strauss & Company, covering the US, Canada and Latin America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He previously worked across Asia and Africa for Levi Strauss, the Carlsberg Group and SABMiller.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite his track record of managing companies internationally, Bagattini’s name has appeared regularly in talks about executive pay in a country facing extreme income inequality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest analysis from Just Share showed that Baggatini’s remuneration for the 2023 financial year reached R122 million, 1,308 times the company’s lowest internal wage of R93,600.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While lower-level employees are often limited to just wages, executive remuneration usually includes short-term incentives (STIs), long-term incentives (LTIs) and hefty bonuses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe sector undoubtedly plays an important role in employing to low- and semi-skilled workers,” said Just Share\u2019s senior inequality analyst Kwanele Ngogela.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It is nevertheless crucial to also recognise the contribution of the extreme vertical wage gaps which characterise these companies to the country\u2019s overall high levels of inequality.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bagattini’s remuneration dropped by 47.7% in the 2024 financial year to R65.3 million as the group continues to face challenges in its apparel business in South Africa, New Zealand and Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, the high pay of executives at the company’s Annual General Meeting in 2024 drew the ire of several shareholders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As reported by News24<\/a>, investors, who collectively hold over one-third of Woolworths, opposed its remuneration policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This marked the second year in a row that the group was unable to meet the 75% threshold on its remuneration policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the vote being non-binding, it still reflects that many shareholders are unhappy with the large amount that executives are earning amidst the company’s struggles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Baggitini’s recent sale of his shares may only make up a fraction of his total worth, but it is still far higher than what many Woolworths employees will see in their lifetime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Date<\/strong><\/td>Shares<\/strong><\/td>Value<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
10 June<\/td>419,966<\/td>R23,173,555.89<\/td><\/tr>
11 June<\/td>111,664<\/td>R6,146,712.38<\/td><\/tr>
12 June<\/td>168,370<\/td>R9,118,397.25<\/td><\/tr>
Total<\/strong> <\/td>700,000<\/strong><\/td>R38,438,665.52<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Woolworths CEO Roy Baggatini has sold 700,000 shares, netting him close to R40 million. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":794904,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[22865,949],"class_list":["post-828150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-levis","tag-woolworths"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=828150"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":828188,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828150\/revisions\/828188"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/794904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=828150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=828150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=828150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}