A2 Milk executives sell vested shares for taxes as directors buy

The a2 Milk Company disclosed the transactions in filings to the Australian Securities Exchange and New Zealand Exchange. Members of its Executive Leadership Team sold as much as half of the shares issued after the vesting of performance rights under the company’s long-term incentive plan.

The company said the disposals were mainly intended to provide funds for statutory tax payments arising from the vesting. It also described sales of up to 50% of vested equity by executives as standard practice for meeting those obligations.

After the vesting and related sales, senior executives continued to hold shares above the company’s minimum ownership requirements. David Bortolussi, the managing director and chief executive, held equity worth more than six times the threshold set for executives.

Several independent non-executive directors took the opposite position in the market. Grant Dempsey bought an initial 70,000-share holding, while Lain Jager and Pei-yu (Sandra) Yu added to their existing positions through open-market purchases.

The disclosures followed a2 Milk’s full-year results. Those results showed ongoing activity in infant nutrition and liquid milk, while lower birth rates in Greater China continued to limit growth in the wider infant-formula market.

The company has maintained its premium positioning in Chinese mother-and-baby stores and has expanded distribution through cross-border e-commerce. It is also developing adjacent adult functional dairy-powder products. Analysts were continuing to monitor the transactions alongside the company’s supply-chain work and brand expansion; most equity analysts retained positive ratings, with average price targets above A$7.80.