Rinehart Offloaded $50M Fairfax Shares

Mining magnate Gina Rinehart has reportedly reduced her Fairfax stake, offloading about $50 million worth of the company’s shares. Rinehart said the reduction was to remove a key obstacle to her attempt to join Fairfax board.

The partial sale was facilitated by Rinehart’s private company Hancock Prospecting. It sold about 86.5 million shares to funds manager Perpetual. This means her share in Fairfax decreased from 18.67 to 15 percent although she remains the company’s single biggest shareholder.

The mining billionaire has been battling for months to get at least two seats in the company’s board. Just days ago, the Fairfax board rejected her bid for a board seat after she did not agree to the board’s charter of editorial independence.

Hancock Prospecting issued a statement, saying that selling the shares was aimed to meet Fairfax’s rules on corporate insurance policy. The policy was designed to protect its directors against lawsuits by disgruntled shareholders.

The policy, however, does not cover directors with a stake of more than 15 percent. Hancock also said this was also one of the issues that Roger Corbett raised in Rinehart’s pursuit of a board seat. Corbett is Fairfax chairman.

Rinehart has been in battle for months to get two board seats. She is also seeking a third seat to be given to an appointed independent director. Rinehart, however, has continued to deny that she wants to take control of Fairfax.

Rinehart also said she does not have plans to take over other titles like Sydney Morning Herald, Canberra Times, The Age, among others.

Rinehart is also the richest woman in the world.