Selling shares in their firms for a good, unalarming cause
Anta Sports Products chairman Ding Shizhong (below) sold HK$800 million worth of shares yesterday at almost double the debut price two years ago.
The company said part of the proceeds from the disposal, which represented 3.2 per cent of the issued capital, would be used to set up a charitable fund. However, no details about the size or nature of the fund were available.
It was much the same for Singapore-listed Noble Group, whose chairman, Richard Elman, cashed out S$284 million (HK$1.52 billion) by selling shares to China Investment Corp last month. At the time, Noble said Elman would use part of the proceeds to fund a charitable foundation focusing on international relations among Asian nations. However, we have yet to hear of any details.
When directors start disposing of their shares, it usually gets investors worked up: Why are they selling? Is something bad happening? What do they know that we don't?
So it's not suprising that they will look for a good excuse to justify taking some chips off the table to manage the post-share-sale shock.