Southwest Air soars after billionaire Gangwal buys $108 million worth of shares

(Bloomberg) — Southwest Airlines Co. shares are rising after InterGlobe Aviation Ltd. board member and billionaire co-founder Rakesh Gangwal bought about $107 million worth of company stock, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings from Thursday.

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In a series of transactions disclosed in seven filings, Gangwal acquired 3.6 million shares of the airline's common stock for about $29 apiece. Along with Gangwal, Gary Kelly, the executive chairman, also bought shares.

Shares of Southwest rose as much as 4.7% as of 2:40 p.m. in New York.

The company appointed Gangwal to its board in July after activist investor Elliott Investment Management called for sweeping leadership and strategy changes. The move was criticized by Elliott, who said last week he remained committed to calling a special shareholder meeting to allow investors to vote on the slate of new directors to revamp Southwest's board.

“I believe that changing the board structure and leadership beyond what has already been announced would be counterproductive and not in the best interest of shareholders,” Gangwal said in a statement from Southwest on Wednesday. “With the opening of the company’s trading window to insiders, I made an investment in the company’s shares.”

The transactions submitted were:

Bloomberg publishes these bulletins when more than one insider from the same company files a Form 4 on a single day or when a single insider makes multiple filings.

The following are excluded from the updates:

• Sales pursuant to SEC Rule 10(b)5-1

• Examples where options are exercised with a sale or where the net proportion of shares traded is 0

• Transactions with indirectly held shares

Story Link: Southwest Air Insiders Buy Over $108 Million in Stock

– With support from Mary Snakestein.

(Updates shares to add Gangwal statement. An earlier version of this story corrected the value of shares purchased by Gangwal.)

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