Billabong CEO Walks The Talk And Buys 59,000 Shares In Company

Surfwear company Billabong CEO Launa Inman has "backed up her confidence in the turnaround potential of the troubled fashion company with cold hard cash," according to Eli Greenblat of the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD. Inman has bought her first parcel of shares since her appointment as CEO earlier this year. It was revealed Inman had purchased 59,000 shares in Billabong on Friday for the total price of A$49,610 ($50,840). The average price paid for her stock was A$0.84. According to her directors' interest statement, it was the first time she had bought shares in the company since her appointment in May (SMH, 10/23). In Sydney, Andrew Fraser reported fellow Billabong board member Sally Pitkin purchased 70,000 shares. But the largest purchase was from company Founder Gordon Merchant. He spent A$754,000 on an extra 900,000 shares ahead of a meeting where he will "come under pressure from the Australian Shareholders Association to step down from the board" of the company he founded nearly 40 years ago (THE AUSTRALIAN, 10/24).