THE chief executive of Belfast engineering group Mackie International, Mr Pat Dougan and his family interests, have sold half their shares in Mackie to Irish and British institutional investors for £4.75 million sterling.
Mackie said yesterday that Mr Dougan had personally sold 250,000, shares while Dougan family trusts sold one million shares last Friday, at 380p sterling each. In addition, Mackie chairman Mr Roger Looker sold 150,000 shares at the same price, realising £570,000.
The shares were placed with institutions by stockbrokers Teather & Greenwood and NCB at 380p each, a modest discount to the 395p market price of the shares last Friday. Following tee share sale, Mr Dougan personally retains a 2.6 per cent stake in Mackie while the Dougan family trusts - in which Mr Dougan has a non beneficial interest - retain 10.3 per cent. Mr Looker retains a 1 per cent stake in Mackie.
When Mackie's shares were floated on the stock market in April 1995 at 180p each, the directors gave an undertaking not to sell any of their shares until after the publication of the company's results for the year to the end of December, 1995. Mackie published its results last Tuesday, when the group reported a 60 per cent rise in profits to £3 million. The Dougan and Looker shares were sold the following Friday.
Analysts welcomed the share sale and the broader institutional base that has resulted. Prior to the share sale, Mr Dougan and his family trusts held over 26 per cent of Mackie shares. Market sources said that it was desirable that Mackie should have a broader shareholder base and the 26 per cent held by the chief executive and his family was viewed as a negative factor in the long term.
Mackie now has a good spread of Irish and British institutions in its share register, while it has also been successful in building up support from American investors. The Washington State Investment Board is one of the biggest institutional shareholders in Mackie, with 3.3 per cent.
