Founder Selling SharesPretty much talking to myself here although there are a lot of readers. GLTA
Brian Hill, founder and Exec Chair of ATZ, is selling $70M in shares for estate planning purposes. The stock did sell off a bit but isn’t this insignificant as there is no dilution of returns among shareholders because no new shares were issued by the company?
There can be a variety of reasons when founders decide to sell their holdings that are not necessarily business related (eg. , personal estate planning, diversification among other asset classes, or just pure income).
It is worth noting that Brian Hill has only received a $1.00 base salary for the last three years according to SEDAR filings. It makes sense for the CEO to liquidate a portion of the holdings. Therefore, we believe the CEO incentives and shareholders are totally aligned, and this sale should not affect the long-term business prospects of Aritzia. As of the last management information circular, Mr. Hill had 21.9M shares (multi voting) worth more than $1B, so (as you indicated) this sale is not overly significant. (5iResearch)