Ann: 2018 Full Year Results - Appendix 4E, page-40

Hi littlecorn

I can’t get too excited by statements such as “all directors have been offloaded their holdings”. Apart from being incorrect, such a broad brush glosses over matters of detail and context which generally provide the real insights.

Let’s start with the Stang brothers, Maurie (Chairman of NAN) and his brother Bernard (a very large individual NAN shareholder but not a Director). Between them they own north of 30 million NAN shares and while it is certainly true that both have unloaded several million shares on maybe 3 occasions over about a 12 to 14 year period, that has hardly put a dent in their substantial holdings in the company. Against that background, I would also note that Maurie Stang has been a staunch supporter of NAN reinvesting for growth, rather than developing an early dividend stream, even though he and his brother would be the largest individual beneficiares of a dividend stream. It is in that context that it seems perfectly logical and unremarkable to me for the Stang brothers to occasionally offload a modest percentage of their respective shareholdings’ to improve their personal liquidity.

Moving now to Michael Kavanagh (Director and CEO of NAN), I’m not aware of him ever selling any NAN shares. Rather, he seems to have been a relentless accumulator of performance rights and options and a converter to ordinary shares as and when conversion opportunities present.

Stephen Sargent is a relatively recent Directorial appointment and the only share transactions I have seen from him have been on-market purchases.

Then we have two other more long standing Directors, Richard England and David Fisher and it is true that both of these Directors seem to occasionally offload quite small holdings in NAN that have presumably been accumulated as part of their Directorial stipends. However, rather than viewing this as a vote of no confidence in the company, I see this activity as part of their respective commitments (as professional company directors with Board responsibilities on multiple companies) to being “independent” non-executive Directors of NAN.

I’m not aware of any share trading activity in NAN from Marie MacDonald.

Anyway, for what it’s worth, that’s the context in which I view the share trading activities of NAN’s Directors (and the Chairman’s brother) and it all sits quite comfortably with me.

zeno9