Garmin Ltd. on Thursday announced that a family trust, of which Min H. Kao, the company’s co-founder and executive chairman, is a co-trustee, has established a pre-arranged trading plan to sell a portion of the trust’s shares in the company over a designated period. The plan was adopted in accordance with Rule 10b5-1 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
Rule 10b5-1 allows corporate officers and directors to adopt written, pre-arranged stock trading plans when they do not have material, non-public information. Such programs provide for regular selling of a predetermined, fixed number of company shares in order to gradually diversify the individual’s investment portfolio, to minimize the market effect of share sales by spreading them out over a period of time and to avoid concerns about initiating transactions while in possession of material non-public information.
Kao, his wife and children have been the largest shareholders of Garmin Ltd. since the initial public offering in December 2000. The Kao family, which currently owns approximately 17% of Garmin outstanding shares, intends to retain the majority of their holdings, maintaining what is currently the largest position in Garmin Ltd. No shares have been sold under the family trust’s plan to date. Any transactions under the plan will be disclosed publicly through Form 144 and Form 4 filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Kao will terminate his previous 10b5-1 trading plan that was established in March 2018 on August 17, 2018. The family trust has adopted this plan for tax planning purposes.
