WiseTech Global Ltd's [WTC:ASX] share price has tanked, caused mainly by a boardroom fallout in response to the ongoing role of highly controversial founder Richard White.
We reviewed the company's ESG profile to breakdown what investors should know, and should have known, about this ongoing controversy:
What actually happened?
Last Monday, four out of six board members resigned from their roles at WiseTech. This included the chair Richard Dammery, standing down due to “differing views around the ongoing role of the founder”.
Founder Richard White has been involved in a number of different scandals in the past few months regarding allegations of inappropriate relationships and behaviour towards women.
In October 2024 when allegations initially broke, White stepped down as CEO and agreed to a role as an external consultant.
However new allegations came out this month which led to the exodus from the board, and has also led to White controversially returning as Executive Chairman.
How did investors react?
WiseTech's share price has been volatile since these stories broke out.
Looking back to when these allegations first emerged, share price fell 31.62% (137.46 AUD on Oct 1 2024 to a low of 99.37 AUD on Oct 24 2024).
With the new allegations coming out against the founder and the subsequent board exodus, a trading halt on WiseTech Global shares was put in was put in place from Thursday 20 October to Monday 24 October.
As the halt was lifted, share price immediately fell 20.1% to 97.25 AUD, and as of the time of writing is currently sitting at a low of 89.50 AUD.
Could ESG data have helped investors mitigate this loss?
It depends on what ESG data solution you have access to.
Looking at MSCI and Sustainalytics' ratings on this company, for example, one might think there was little to be concerned about.
MSCI give WiseTech the highest possible overall ESG rating of an 'AAA', stating they are a leader among 451 companies in their industry. This data was unhelpfully only updated in June 2024, prior to the emergence of these scandals.
Sustainalytics' ESG rating similarly raises no immediate red flags - WiseTech is a 'low risk' company, which is concerning given the last update is listed as having been done on 27 February 2025.
Both solutions provide 'controversies' offerings which would have flagged these scandals, but only after the damage was done - giving conviction to the argument that ESG data and analysis is 'backwards looking'.
What did Integrum pick up on WiseTech?
Integrum ESG provides transparent actionable data on companies, including WiseTech.
Not only does the Platform score the company a middling 'C' grade, but has a 'Live ESG Sentiment Score' of negative 100%.
In both October 2024 and this month, when the controversies surrounding WiseTech's founder and governance broke, the real-time sentiment tracker picked up these stories early.
This real-time sentiment tracker is updated every 15 minutes and looks over 47,000 data sources to alert users to emerging stories before they become a full blown controversy.
Taking advantage of this combination of timely data, any investor would have the ammunition they needed to mitigate the losses they were due to make from WiseTech's share price falling.
Utilise both fundamental scoring and real-time ESG sentiment data
Breaking controversies and poor governance can torpedo a share price - as evidenced with WiseTech.
Only with a solution that can provide you with transparent fundamental analysis and real-time alerts can investors be best prepared to react accordingly and mitigate any potential losses.
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