Forget that investors had been scathing about the latest earnings misfire and were demanding blood.

So it is just as well that the head of its Aussie operations, fellow Brit Pat Regan, has been delivering the goods in his new job and will be stepping into the breach come January 1 next year.

The hard bit is deciding what you pay an executive who received a sign-on bonus of $8.5 million - it's a lot to live up to.

QBE's American chairman Marty Becker probably thinks he has struck the right balance with a base salary of $2 million and incentives that could add another $7 million to his pay.

And it comes just in time, given the final tranche of shares, from his $8.5 million welcome gift, vested in March this year.

This gift has had the embarrassing side effect of pushing Regan's pay (as in actual pay) above that of his boss, Neal, since he joined in 2014.

We are sure this will be reflected in Regan's parting gift for the boss. Especially since Regan walks into the top job with twice as many shares as Neal owns ahead of his departure.

Speaking of parting gifts. We are still none the wiser about how settlement negotiations are going with the man who would have been Regan's rival for the CEO job: Colin Fagen.

It looks like we will have to wait until next year's annual report to find out how much Fagen's abrupt departure will cost the insurer.

Fire sale

It will go down as the most painful sale of the spring sales season.

Some of the top real estate agents that McGrath Ltd had assembled for its 2015 float abandoned the stock on Tuesday at a $29.6 million discount to its public issue price.

Not that they had a choice with their market timing.

Former star agents Matt Lahood, Ben Collier and Brad Gillespie were among an exodus of staff from the troubled firm earlier this year. But the trio, who've set up their own shop, The Agency, and former colleagues remained tied to McGrath through their 14.66 per cent stake in the company, which only emerged from escrow on Friday.

"I'm now unfortunately in competition with my own investment," Lahood told Domain in April.

The escrow condition had prevented the former McGrath insiders from offloading their shares in the struggling business since it listed in December 2015 at $2.10 a share - which is when founder John McGrath cashed in part of his stake for $37.4 million.

Last week, the group - including one agent still with McGrath - agreed to sell their substantial stake in the business as a super block to get the best price.

But they got a harsh lesson in the difference between selling land and shares on Tuesday.

The 20.4 million shares sold for 65?? each, representing a discount of more than 10 per cent to the stock's closing price on Monday.

Stock that was worth $42.8 million at the time of the float changed hands for just $13.2 million.

McGrath was doing its best to portray the sale as a positive for the group.

"McGrath welcomes release of these shares as it will increase the trading liquidity in McGrath shares and improve the diversity of the shareholder register," said an ASX release from the company after the sale completed.

The agents may regret the timing of their sale if speculation is correct that McGrath plans to privatise his business, possibly with the help of private equity groups.

The company founder still owns 28 per cent of the business, which has lost more than $53 million in value since the float.

Where there's smoke

Embattled sandalwood grower Quintis 'fessed up to the ASX that it has been hit with a shareholder class action by Bannister Law, which is being funded by ASX-listed litigation funder JustKapital.

The fact that shares have been suspended for months means we should not be troubled by the fact that reports of the action surfaced last week when the statement of claim was lodged in the Federal Court.

Quintis investors, like its brand ambassadors Adam Gilchrist and Formula One ace Daniel Ricciardo, will be reaching for the smelling salts.

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