r/ASX_Bets • u/Vintego_92 • 6h ago
Directors who sold before the raise: 14 of 717 ASX companies that placed shares in the last year. Here's who [OC]
Disclosure (rule 7): I run DilutionLens, a free site tracking dilution off ASX filings. One-off, not the weekly post, no links, not advice.
Same poll as last week's post: "management selling" came second at 22%. So I counted that too.
717 companies did a cash share placement in the year to 21 Oct, 1,095 placements in all. In the 90 days before one, a director sold shares on market at 14 of the 717 companies. That's 2%. Four of the 14 sold under $11k (CBY, HE8, KCC, OLY), so it's really 10.
Directors selling before a raise is rarer than the poll suggests
| Ticker | Director sold | Then the raise | Since |
|---|---|---|---|
| COB | Chair + a director, 14-15 Oct: $799k at 26-33c | 8 Dec: $5.3m at 9c, plus options | 5.8c |
| GMN | Exec director, 20-24 Apr: $567k at ~12.7c, to repay debt | 29 Apr: $5.5m at 10c | 4.8c |
| CCE | Director's entities, 2-9 Jul: $254k at ~21c | 22 Jul: $2.5m at 18c | 15c |
| DXN | Two directors, 4 Jun: $208k at 12-14.5c | 9 Jun: $7m at 13c | 28c |
| EOS | A director, 18 Mar: $116k at $8.96 | 18 May: $150m at $8 | $9.27 |
| MYG | Two directors, 24-27 Oct: $2.15m at ~$1.76 | 11 Nov: $30.5m at $1.90 | $1.58 |
| GNP | A director, 6 Mar: $8.0m at ~$7.63 | 20 May: $200m at $9.25 | $8.00 |
| SRL | MD, 20-21 Aug: $328k at ~$1.83 | 17 Nov: $46m at $4.25 | $14.36 |
Not in the table: CEL (sold at 11c, raised at 13c, consolidated since) and ARC (sold at 9-11c, raised at 10c, right at the 90-day edge).
Most of them sold for less than the raise price, or about the same
Split the 10 by what the director got against what the placees paid:
- Got more than the raise price: COB, GMN, CCE, EOS. Three of those four trade under the raise price today.
- About the same: DXN, ARC.
- Got less: MYG, GNP, SRL, CEL. SRL's MD sold at $1.83 three months before raising at $4.25 and took stock in the raise himself. Not exactly a dump.
So "director sold, then they raised" is mostly a coincidence of calendars. Directors sell for all sorts of reasons, and a company that raises once or twice a year is often within 90 days of one.
COB is the one that doesn't fit. Eight weeks after the chair sold, the company raised at 9c with an option attached to every share, when the price had already fallen to 10.5c.
DXN is the other. Two directors sold on 4 June, the day after the contract news from last week's post. The raise was announced five days later. Its announcement now bars directors from dealing until after the full-year results.
How I counted: a cash placement on a new-share notice, and a director's on-market sale on their own dealing notice in the 90 days before it. Taken out: off-market transfers, moves between a director's own entities, sales to cover tax or option exercises, sales after the raise was already public (SGA, CNJ), and convertible notes (AII, TOK). Prices to 21 Oct.
Which one did I miss?
