Directors active on Easter eve

Peter Klinger

Updated 19 April 2014 at 12:24 am

Finbar executive chairman John Chan. Picture: Astrid Volzke/The West Australian.

TFS Corp co-founder Stephen Atkinson has cashed in on the soaring share price of the Indian sandalwood plantation company to offload most of his equity on the eve of Easter.

Mr Atkinson, who remains a non-executive director of TFS, was one of several high-profile Perth directors to announce on Thursday they had changed their shareholdings.

Leading the pack was Mineral Resources co-founder and chief executive Chris Ellison, with a regular sale of a small parcel of his stake in the $2.2 billion contractor and iron ore miner.

Mr Ellison sold two million shares for $22.6 million but retains 25.1 million MinRes units worth $295 million at the company’s $11.74 close on Thursday.

Mr Atkinson, who set up TFS with one-time tax law firm partner Frank Wilson, offloaded 3.7 million shares worth $5.6 million in on- and off-market transfers on Wednesday. It cut Mr Atkinson’s stake in TFS to 166,668 shares. He realised an average price of $1.52, compared with TFS’ close on Thursday of $1.64.

TFS has been one of the stand-out listed WA performers over the past year, rising from 53¢ to as high as $1.86 last month as investors started warming to the outlook for its first few sandalwood harvests in the Kimberley.

Managing director Mr Wilson, meanwhile, added to his 16.4 per cent stake in the $464 million- valued TFS by declaring on Thursday he had picked up one million shares, for $1.52 each, in an off-market transfer. It sparked talk he had purchased some of Mr Atkinson’s stock.

Finbar Group has also enjoyed a share price rerating on the back of a successful execution of apartment developments in WA and a healthy dividend schedule.

Its shares have risen from $1.49 over the past six months and closed at $1.69 on Thursday, valuing Finbar at $385 million.

Executive chairman John Chan still views Finbar’s stock as a good investment, rolling his $473,046 cheque from the fully franked interim dividend of 4¢-a-share into the dividend reinvestment plan, priced at $1.66.

It increased Mr Chan’s Finbar stake to 10.7 per cent.