Aircraft,
Can you imagine a company trying to persuade the share market that its value is actually less than the current share price? I can't. In the opposite case, where the company valuation is greater than the current share price, can you imagine the share market believing a company's claims
that the share price should be higher? I can't.
The share market makes it own mind up, independently, on what the share price should be, and that valuation will almost always be different to what the company thinks the price should be.
I agree your first point. However with respect to your second, that is why CEOs and Chairs get on the road and go and see investors. I don't doubt that Mr Dixon and Ms Jackson have done that over their tenures; my point is that they clearly did not do as good a job at convincing investors as their counterparts at carriers whose shareprice outperformed that of Qantas in the months before the APA bid.
If the market's valuation differs markedly from the company's own, then it's the job of senior management (possibly devolved to Investor Relations or Corporate Comms) - acting in shareholders' best interests as they are required to - to get in front of people and bring the two closer.
Geoff Dixon had failed to achieve what is it is that they get paid to do........ and that is maximise share value for the shareholders!!!
That is not Dixon's job
As he is a 'main-board' director of a public company, I suggest that it is. His service contract cannot get him out of his duties as a director.
Maximising share value is the best way to further the interests of the company - bearing in mind that a 'company' is made up of its members, ie. its shareholders.
See
s.180 (2)(d), Corporations Act 2001 (C'th) and s.181(1)(a). These are both civil obligations.
S.184(1)(c) is the criminal sanction.
I am not accusing anyone of criminal activity - merely pointing out that a director owes a duty to the company - ie. the members of that company.