Matt Comyn offloads $8.4m of CBA shares amid separation from wife

Executives sell shares in their own companies all the time. So when Commonwealth Bank chief executive Matt Comyn offloaded about $8.4 million worth of shares last week, we didn’t think much of it.

But that was before we knew Comyn and his wife, Lucy , are working through the terms of their separation, which CBD brought word of on Tuesday, after the Commonwealth Bank confirmed the couple had split.

The share disclosure, released to the market on August 14, showed Comyn acquired a tick over 30,000 shares as a result of vested equity earned as part of his remuneration. Then there were two tranches of shares sold: The first tranche of 30,006 shares sold at $168.18 per share, worth a little over $5 million. The second lot of 20,091 shares went at $168.80, worth about $3.4 million.

All up, the share movement leaves Comyn’s direct shareholding about the same as it was the day before, and is not out of step with his previous share sales, which have occurred at least once a year since 2022. A Commonwealth Bank spokesman declined to comment on whether Comyn’s share sale this month was related to his separation.

But our guess is the sale, the second tranche of which was jointly held by Comyn and his wife as beneficiaries of a trust, freed up a helpful chunk of cash for whatever costs are racked up through the separation, and, of course, may make it easier for the couple to split their assets.

It was only June when we last brought word of the frenzy among corporates to find so-called “Pauline whisperers” to cosy up to One Nation as the party rises in the polls.

Well, it looks like business is good enough for those who already have a line into One Nation leader Pauline Hanson to flaunt their access.

One lobbyist who has since made the pitch for those betting that Hanson’s popularity will hold out until at least 2028 is Jannette Cotterell , who set up her lobby shop Executive Counsel Australia back in 2008 following a five-year stint at CT Group, formerly known as Crosby Textor.

Cotterell describes herself as non-partisan, and in a post to LinkedIn felt it necessary to declare “engagement does not equal endorsement”. We bet! When reached on Tuesday, Cotterell was quick to have a crack at us over the sausagefest of names that populated our last column item on the matter. She was also quick to take the opportunity to pump up her own tyres. But we’ll spare you the marketing material.

Cotterral’s name joins a string of others who have been bandied about in political circles as possible One Nation relationship brokers.

So far we’ve heard the name of Gina Rinehart’s media minder James Radford come up. So too former Nationals deputy campaign director and conservative lobbyist Michael Kauter . Also: Scott Mitchell , who spent five years as the federal director of the Nationals before setting up his own lobby shop.