Chemist Warehouse founder sells $480m shares in Sigma

Chemist Warehouse is now owned by Sigma. Picture: Gaye Gerard

Chemist Warehouse co-founder Jack Gance has taken some money off the table following the back door listing of the pharmacy giant into Sigma, selling $480m of stock into the market on Thursday night through Macquarie Capital.

On offer are 155.1 million shares at $3.10 each after shares had closed at $3.09.

The stake equates to about 1.3 per cent of the company.

It comes after DataRoom reported earlier this week investment banks UBS, Macquarie Capital and Barrenjoey were said to be in pole position to assist Chemist Warehouse founders Mario Verrocchi and Jack Gance on a potential block trade of up to $1.7bn of Sigma shares.

Around 558.12m shares were released from escrow at the close of market trading on Wednesday, accounting for about 4.8 per cent of the stock.

The shares are largely held by the families of the two founders, and investment banks were on standby to divest their interests should they choose to do so.

Sigma reported its full-year result on Wednesday and following the announcement, its shares closed up 7.8 per cent, taking its market value to $32.5bn.

For the year to June, Sigma reported an 82.3 per cent increase in revenue to $6bn, with contributions from the back door listing of Chemist Warehouse and a 2.1 per cent fall in net profit to $529.9m.

About 200 people, including other members of the Gance and Verrocchi founding Chemist Warehouse families, had about $11.5bn worth of shares at the time of the deal, and it was the founders who had their stakes subject to escrow arrangements.

Sigma announced the deal with the privately held Chemist Warehouse, effectively a reverse takeover, last year and subsequently gained approval from the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission.

Jack Gance, Sam Gance and Mario Verrocchi held about 49 per cent of the combined entity’s shares, and other non-escrowed Chemist Warehouse shareholders had almost 37 per cent.

According to Bloomberg data, Mr Verrocchi holds 26.9 per cent, Jack Gance 13.44 per cent and Sam Gance 12.31 per cent.