Management should be aiming to follow the highest ethical standards and be seen to be doing so, i.e. perception is just as important as the execution of transactions themselves. Its not just about following the barest minimum legal rules as I've eluded too above. The $120m exchange rate matter caught me by surprise, (depending on future exchange rates some of this may be mitigated) as did the VAH loss, (more than hefty doses of flea powder is required there), so yes FY17 will be materially lower than I was previously expecting and if I'd known those things a couple of weeks ago I would not have added at $2.78.
I don't think it's worth getting into a theoretical about if they'd reversed the order...all that matters is are they in breech of the insider trading regulations and / or the companies own governance policies for management share transactions. What about the share sale referred to in the link above. Mr Morgan selling a whopping 350,000 shares one trading day before what amounts to a profit downgrade.
The other technicality management will cling too is this. The SP actually went up significantly after the release of information contained in today's investor briefing so management could make the case that it contained price sensitive information that was positive, (slightly bizarre I know). They could argue that their expectation of yield recovering in the medium term, (FY18 onwards) was good news for the company and DCF modelling using higher long term anticipated yields is a positive for the market. Another useful technicality for management to assert one thinks...
Time for dinner I think...its been an interesting day.