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Johannesburg - The chairperson and former CEO of shipping and logistics group Grindrod has offloaded company shares worth more than R70m.
"The share sales are more about my personal wealth diversification than about Grindrod," said Ivan Clark on Tuesday. "There's a need to manage my portfolio for my family and most of my wealth is in Grindrod shares."
Clark sold 4 million shares in three separate transactions last week, for between 1 781 cents and 1&mnsp;800c per share.
Clark stepped down as CEO of Grindrod in 2006, after seven years on the job. He had been a director of the firm since 1993, serving it in senior positions since 1977.
The company's annual report for the year to end-December 2008 showed Clark held 12.4 million shares. He was the single largest individual shareholder in the company, while other directors held a combined 17.2 million shares.
Earlier this year, Clark sold another 2.5 million shares in April to pocket R31m, followed by the sale of 1.5 million shares in June for R24m.
"Clark is the kind of guy who likes to control the levers himself," said a source familiar with the company. "With him now being out it is understandable that he will want to diversify his portfolio."
However, other senior Grindrod managers have also shipped big profits to the bank throughout the year, including current CEO Alan Olivier and shipping division MD Laurence Stuart-Hill.
In total, the 17.2 million shares that were held by directors in December have decreased to about 8 million.
- Fin24.com
