RE:RE:IAU is ripe for a takeoverIf a company can't find a wealthy individual / entity to buy all the new shares it wants to issue (i.e., private placement equity raise), they hire underwriters to sell the shares for them.
Underwriter(s) tend not to keep the shares. Instead, they negotiate with the company that wants to do an equity raise by agreeing to take X number of new shares at Y price, get a cut of the proceeds as their fee, then sell the shares to interested clients / other parties, so I doubt National Bank or the other underwriters mentioned kept many if any of the shares they agreed to take.