Off-Market Equity Transfers

What is an Off-Market Transfer?

An off-market transfer is a method for privately transferring shares between two shareholders without using the services of a share broking firm. Essentially, an off-market transfer is a change of ownership as the shares are being held in inventory or part of a fund.

Purpose

An off-market transfer may be conducted for a variety of reasons, but is usually a method for two individuals or corporations to privately transfer the shares and not affect the market.

To exchange ownership of shares by conducting an off-market transfer is preferred by shareholders as it involves minimal paperwork and avoids the brokerage fees that would be charged by a brokerage firm.

Below are some of the common off-market transfer scenarios, where shares may be transferred between:
– Banks holding shares in inventory from previous loan agreements
– Long Term Funds changing future strategies
– Private Investors without a current broker/trading platform
– Individual and company/family trust
– Estate of a deceased family member and a surviving family member

Method

As discussed above, an off-market transfer is not conducted on the public share market – it is conducted privately between two shareholders. This removes the involvement of a share broking firm who would otherwise act as an intermediary between the shareholder and the public market.

  1. When an agreement has been made to conduct a transfer between two shareholders, both must complete and sign an “Off-Market Equity Transfer Form” GBB then sends the form to the applicable share registry.
  2. The transfer of shares is conducted by the applicable share registry who remove the allocated quantity of shares from the shareholder details of the “seller” and add the allocated quantity of shares to the shareholder details of the “buyer”.
  3. The “selling” shareholder(s) receive notification from the share registry that the transfer has taken place and that the shares are now registered in the name of the “buying” shareholder. Electronic Certification is then automatically registered to the “buying” shareholder within 5-7 days after the notification, this is sent directly to GBB who then deliver this to the “Buying” shareholder. If this is the first time that GBB and the “Buying” shareholder has engaged in business we will also send a standard Account Opening Form which must be completed by law and also acts as a “Know your client Form” “KYC” this satisfies regulatory authorities who audit for Anti-Money Laundering and other legal reasons.

Cost

Shareholders do not currently have to pay an administration fee with GBB to open an account or to conduct an off-market transfer, the “buying” shareholder is only bound by GBB fees of 5% based upon the profit realised at the time of the future sale.

Off-Market Equity Transfer Form

An off-market equity transfer form will need to be completed by the buyer of which GBB will facilitate upon clearance of funds. We deal directly with the seller on behalf of our buyer on the purchase and for our sellers we are able to place the holdings in the same manner with our database of buyers.

Please feel free to contact GBB if you would like assistance with an off-market equity transfer form or other trading matters.
You will find an example of an Off-Market Transfer form in this section of our website, please note these are only issued after we have received a signed Trade Confirmation and the position has been subsequently settled by the “Buying” shareholder, this is a post-sale form.