{"id":845839,"date":"2025-12-09T08:39:46","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T06:39:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=845839"},"modified":"2025-12-09T08:44:22","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T06:44:22","slug":"woolworths-ceo-sells-r37-million-in-shares","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/845839\/woolworths-ceo-sells-r37-million-in-shares\/","title":{"rendered":"Woolworths CEO sells R37 million in shares"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Woolworths CEO Roy Bagattini has sold R37 million worth of shares in the company amid a pushback over his and other executives’ pay. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bagattini, who became CEO of Woolworths in 2020, sold 650,000 shares for an average of 5669.12 cents per share. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The transaction, which took place on December 5, 2025, totalled just under R36,850,000. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the financial year ended June 30 2025, Bagattini\u2019s single-figure remuneration rose R79.9 million, compared to R65.3 million in the prior year.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Newly-appointed CEO of Woolworths Food, Sam Ngumeni, saw his single-figure remuneration also rise from R20.9 million to R26 million – he was previously the group\u2019s Chief Operating Officer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Group Finance Director Zaid Manjra saw his single-figure remuneration grow from R5.2 million in FY24 to R9.2 million in FY25. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As reported by News24<\/a>, Woolworths shareholders challenged the company\u2019s remuneration policy at its annual general meeting (AGM). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the AGM, 62.39% of those eligible to vote were in favour of endorsing the remuneration policy, with 37.61% voting against. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While voting on the remuneration policy is non-binding, it helps companies gauge the sentiment of shareholders. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the King IV Code of Governance, Woolworths should engage with shareholders if it receives less than 75% of the votes.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Woolworths\u2019 board stated that it was “cognisant of shareholder concerns” and offered shareholders the opportunity to submit written concerns to the company secretary.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Troubled period <\/h2>\n\n\n
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\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

The executive pay rise comes amid a relatively poor performance from the group despite the strength of its food business. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The food business saw above-market turnover and concession sales growth of 11.0%, with sector-leading growth of 7.7% on a comparable-store basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group\u2019s Fashion, Beauty and Home (FBH) segment saw turnover and sales increase by 4.7% and 5.1% on a comparable store basis, respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the net trading space for FBH decreased by 2.3% relative to the prior comparable period, and FBH\u2019s Adjusted EBITDA of R2,491 million was a decline of 0.4% against the prior comparable period.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Australia\u2019s Country Road Group (CRG) also underwent a massive restructuring, which looks to reconfigure its operating model. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sales for CRG dropped by 5.4% and 6.8% on a comparable-store basis, with its reported aEBITDA of A$103.9 million, a decline of 41.1% versus the prior comparable period. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

CRG reassessed the carrying value of the assets of the underperforming brands within CRG, which were impaired by R917 million. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amid these issues, the group’s earnings per share declined by 5.5% to 273.4 cents. Headline earnings per share also fell by 26.4% to 268.1 cents. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group\u2019s total dividend fell from 265.5 cents per share a year before to just 188 cents per share.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the group faces challenges, PSG Wealth Equity Analyst Fisokuhle Mbutho recently gave the stock a buy recommendation.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mbutho<\/a> said that the strong food performance will offset volumes in FBH and the macroeconomic challenges facing CRG.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A recent trading update <\/a>for the 19 weeks ended November 9, 2025, also shows some improvements for the group, with turnover and concession sales for the period growing well above inflation at 6.2%.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Latest Full-Year Financials<\/strong><\/td>2025<\/strong><\/td>52\/52 on LY<\/strong><\/td>52\/53 on LY<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Turnover and concession sales<\/td>R81.0 billion<\/td>+6.1%<\/td>+4.2%<\/td><\/tr>
Turnover<\/td>R79.5 billion<\/td>+5.8%<\/td>+3.9%<\/td><\/tr>
Profit before tax<\/td>R3.0 billion<\/td>-14.4%<\/td>-17.8%<\/td><\/tr>
Adjusted profit before tax<\/td>R3.7 billion<\/td>-18.4%<\/td>-21.0%<\/td><\/tr>
Earnings per share<\/td>273.4cps<\/td>-1.4%<\/td>-5.5%<\/td><\/tr>
Headline earnings per share<\/td>268.1cps<\/td>-23.9%<\/td>-26.4%<\/td><\/tr>
Adjusted diluted headline earnings per share<\/td>303.4cps<\/td>-19.2%<\/td>-21.6%<\/td><\/tr>
Total dividend per share<\/td>188.0cps<\/td>265.5cps<\/td>-29.2% <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Woolworths CEO Roy Bagattini has sold R37 million in shares amid growing concerns over the retailer’s executive pay. <\/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":[949],"class_list":["post-845839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-woolworths"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845839","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=845839"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":845841,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845839\/revisions\/845841"}],"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=845839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=845839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=845839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}