When founders and early institutional investors in a company choose to sell shares a year after the float, other investors who have been in for less time are entitled to wonder if they should do the same.
Several shareholders in Hastings Group, including Goldman Sachs, saw their sale go through at 216p a share, representing 7 per cent of the share capital. They could have sold after about six months, as is normal with such lock-ins. One reason why they waited until now was that the share price was sitting at or around the 170p-a-share flotation price, and at a time somewhat below it, until the summer.
It is fair to say that the market had its doubts about Hastings in October last year.