$20m payday: Xero founder Rod Drury cashes in on stock market surge

Businessman Rod Drury, chief executive of accounting software company Xero. 16 October 2014 New Zealand Herald Photograph by Jason Oxenham. NZH 18Oct14 - Rod Drury finds business fun and interesti

Xero founder Rod Drury and directors Craig Winkler and Sam Morgan sold shares on market in a multi-million dollar payday, taking advantage of a 35 per cent rally in the stock this year.

Drury and Winkler each sold 1 million shares at $20.01, reaping some $20 million apiece, while Morgan sold 500,000 shares at the same price for about $10 million, according to notices lodged with the NZX. Drury and Winkler are still Xero's two biggest shareholders at 15.2 percent and 12.8 percent respectively, while Morgan's stake, held via Jasmine Investment Holdings, reduced to 3.4 percent from 3.8 percent.

The price was a 4.2 percent discount to yesterday's closing price and the shares fell 0.9 percent to $20.70 today. The notices show Drury and Winkler both appointed First NZ Capital to manage and underwrite the sales for settlement on December 1.

Drury's payday dwarfs his three previous share sales between 2010 and 2012, which collectively netted him about $9.47 million at prices ranging between $6 and $1.45.

Winkler bought into Xero in 2009 at 90 cents a share, joining Drury in a sell-down in 2012 at $6 a share, but has largely maintained his holding. Morgan bought into the Xero initial public offering in 2007 at $1, and has been more active with his shares.

The share sale comes a fortnight after Xero pledged to constrain its annual cash burn for the current year, while reporting a first-half loss of $44.3 million on a 71 percent gain in sales to $92.9 million. Xero has been chasing long-term value by creating a globally competitive software-as-a-service company at the expense of early profitability and has won the backing of major US investors such as Paypal co-founder Peter Thiel, leaving it flush with funds for the forseeable future.

Since the first-half report, former Xero chief operating officer Ross Jenkins sold 50,000 shares at an average price of $19.80 on-market, while keeping 204,000 shares, and chief platform officer Duncan Ritchie sold 27,000 shares at an average price of $19.86, leaving him with about 5900 shares. Jenkins and Ritchie also retained beneficial ownership of shares through Xero's employee restricted share plan.