In reality, the advert (printed below) has been placed by some former employees looking to cash in on the shares they were granted during their employment at the company.
The former staff is offering around DKR 10 million ($1.83 million) worth of stock – not a bad leaving present by anyone’s standards. “We like to look after our people,” jokes Lars Seier Christensen, Saxo’s joint chief executive.
According to the sellers, the tender represents an opportunity for investors to get a stake in the increasingly important retail market and it has attracted good demand. “We have a sufficiently large amount of shares to make the buyer one of the largest shareholders, apart from the founders who hold 70% and a US investment firm (General Atlantic) that bought a quarter of the bank a couple of years ago. Nevertheless, all of us intend to keep significant positions as we have a strong belief in the bank,” they tell me.
Christensen says the sellers are within their rights to look for an outside buyer, although he points out that according to the company’s constitution the shares have to be offered back at the same price as an outsider would be prepared to pay.