Corporate and Venture Services

The Corporate and Venture Services group offers specialized services and aftermarket support to corporate clients and their affiliated shareholders. Our services include:

Rule 144 Transactions/Restricted Stock Guidance
We coordinate with your legal counsel, transfer agent and corporate legal team to ensure proper handling of all insider, affiliate and restricted stock transactions. Our experienced team works with your shareholders to simplify the paperwork and public filing requirements for restricted stock transactions and provides prompt notification of all transactions to company personnel.

Block Trading
We leverage our institutional sales and trading platform to assist your affiliated shareholders with the disposition (or acquisition) of a concentrated position. Insiders, affiliates, venture capital/private equity and strategic corporate holders are offered discrete execution of these highly sensitive, high-volume and complex transactions with minimal adverse market impact.

Rule 10b5-1 Trading Plans
We offer customized 10b5-1 trading plans to officers and directors of our corporate clients. When constructed properly, Rule 10b5-1 plans provide a safe harbor from insider trading liability. Since their inception, these plans have become the most popular method for insiders to diversify (or accumulate) their holdings in company stock. Trades in the plan may occur during blackout periods, as long as certain criteria are met. We work with your legal team to design a plan that complies with your insider trading policy, as well as track and report all activity.

Employee Stock Options Plans (ESOP)
We serve as a captive employee stock option plan broker for the employees, executives and all option holders of your company. Our flexible platform allows us to work with any software provider, and in some cases, link to your employee data. We also serve as a third-party customer service desk and are available to answer all of your employee questions, provide on-site employee training and customize our procedures in an effort to reduce the administrative burden of your internal stock plan personnel. We report all option transactions after the close of market, which allows for timely filings of Form 4s for your insiders and affiliates. We keep close track of your trading windows/blackout periods and serve as the last line of defense for avoiding violations of your insider trading policy. Our experienced team and intimate knowledge allows you to maximize the impact of this popular employee benefit.

Corporate Share Repurchase
Our agency trading desk has a wealth of experience executing corporate buybacks in strict compliance with Rule 10b-18. We provide institutional quality execution and proprietary reporting that measures our performance against several metrics and provides running totals of total plan purchases. We communicate market color on a timely basis, including unusual activity and blocks for sale. We also have the ability to structure your buyback in a 10b5- 1 plan, which adds flexibility around your trading blackout periods.