In morning trade the Volpara Health Technologies Ltd (ASX: VHT) share price has edged lower after announcing that a group of founders and early investors have sold a portion of shares to institutional investors.
At the time of writing the medical technology company's shares are down 1% to $1.58.
What did Volpara announce?
According to the release, last week Volpara conducted a series of investor roadshows across Australia and received an unsolicited approach from a broker on behalf of several international and domestic institutions that wished to purchase shares but were unable to build a suitable position on market.
The company's CEO, Dr Ralph Highnam, explained: "We've been on the radar of many of the big domestic and international institutions since the capital raise early this year, but not all of those parties were able to participate in the raise due to demand. Upon receiving the approach to cross the parcel of shares, the Board considered the offer and agreed that it would be beneficial for the Company and its shareholders to strengthen its institutional shareholder base and increase the proportion of stock held in free float."
The release advises that the block trade involved 6.1 million shares, which equates to approximately 2.8% of Volpara's issued capital. The various parties sold approximately 12% of their respective holdings, reducing their combined holdings to approximately 23% of the total issued capital.
The block trade took place on September 5 at $1.60 per share, which was a discount of ~3.5% to the closing price on that day.
Chairman Paul Reid commented: "These Directors, founders, and early investors have shown their commitment to the Company over the past 10 years. I'm pleased that this orderly transfer has been facilitated to allow more institutional shareholders to join the register, and allow the Directors, founders, and early investors to realise some of their longheld investment in Volpara. These individuals remain totally committed to the business and its work in the early detection and, ultimately, prevention of breast cancer. Furthermore, the Directors advise they have no intention to sell further shares in the foreseeable future."
