The share price of the Irish/Swiss publicly-quoted food company, Aryzta is likely to come under further pressure today following chief executive, Owen Killian’s expression of regret this morning about having to sell about two-thirds of his current holding in the company over the past two days.

In a statement to the stock exchange this morning, it was revealed that Mr Killian sold 427,000 of his 640,000 shares in the business on Monday, the day the company announced half-year results that disappointed the markets.

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In a separate short statement this morning Mr Killian says:

“I regret having to sell down shares at this time. This decision was triggered by the weakness in the share price impacting the collateral value of the share. It is not indicative of my confidence in, or commitment to Aryzta and the achievement of its goals”

This seems to imply that the shares were being used as security for some loan or investment outside the company and that perhaps some banking covenant forced their encashment at this time

Aryzta’s share price has fallen by more than 10% since the results announcement on Monday and by more than 50% since the start of the year as investors show their disappointment about the slow earnings growth delivered by very high acquisition spending in the US and in France and by the company’s own admission that it expected erratic earnings growth over the next 18 months.

The pace and aggression of the share price fall may have been driven by Mr Killian’s own share sale.

Mr Killian, who has consistently been one of the best-paid plc chief executives in Ireland, saw his compensation package fall to €1.6m for the past financial year – down from €5.5m the previous year.

In late 2014, it emerged that he had purchased Shrewsbury House on Dublin’s Shrewsbury Road for €6.5m, the second-highest price house bought in the State that year.