‘The icing on the turd cake’: Fundies lose faith in DroneShield after shock founder selldown
DroneShield’s run as the latest market darling made a hard stop last week after a colossal selldown in shares from its leadership. Investors may have lost faith for good.
Influential fund managers are warning that fallen market darling DroneShield may have permanently lost the faith of sections of the market after moves by its chief executive and chairman to sell down significant amounts of their holdings shocked investors and triggered a steep fall in its share price.
The counter-drone technology company had until last week emerged as one of the ASX success stories of 2025. Only a month ago, it boasted an annual share price return of a dizzying 400%, with surging global demand for defence stocks and a seemingly unending flow of contract wins propelling it into the rarefied heights of inclusion in the large-cap ASX 200 index.
Its relentless rise came despite significant doubts among short-sellers about its stratospheric valuation.
In any case, the the dream run came to an abrupt end when chief executive Oleg Vornik moved to sell $49.5 million worth of stock, his entire holding of ordinary shares while chair Peter James and board director Jethro Marks followed suit to the combined tune of $17.3 million.
